Counterclockwise
by The Loser Lord
Summary: I'm almost certain that this was the Fourth Shinobi War moments ago, so why am I waiting for Kakashi-sensei with Naruto and Sasuke-kun in a fully intact Konoha?  – SasuSaku. UNDER RECONSTRUCTION.
1. team 7, again

**Counterclockwise  
>Summary: <strong>I'm almost certain that this was the Fourth Shinobi War moments ago, so why am I waiting for Kakashi-sensei with Naruto and Sasuke-kun? – SasuSaku **  
>Author's notes: <strong>This is very loosely based off of one of my older stories, Fill in the Blank. It was deleted a few years ago and I decided to rewrite it since we know more about Naruto and I'm no longer a middle schooler who can't write for the life of her.

忍道

'_We're in this war to protect Naruto. Failure is not an option!_' I remember the scent of the field. It smelled like blood and death. The looks of pure horror on the faces of my comrades, and the looks of pure defeat of the corpses being used – I remember all of it.

'_That's Kabuto's technique! That monster…_' the screen of smoke that covered the battlefield. The metal clanking of the shuriken and kunai; I can still feel the gust of wind rushing through my hair as I leap to Kakashi-sensei's aid. Our enemies, old friends who we never wanted to meet again in this sense. They have no choice; they are simply weapons in this cruel shinobi world.

'_Sakura, watch out!_' I remember falling down a deep hole. Falling…falling…I believe a nearby explosion blew me into Kakashi-sensei's mangekyo-created wormhole. I passed through many dimensions; to here, wherever here is. The fighting has stopped. I can't hear anything, just the sound of the crickets and the birds. It's gotten colder; I should have been fine…

I can't sense any chakra; I am alone.

When I open my eyes and sit up, it is _early _morning. The sun has not yet risen and I am sitting in the Yu no Kuni, in the spot where I had last seen Kakashi-sensei.

"…what happened?" I ask myself. I sit amongst the stars and the grass, the trees, the birds, the insects…the wind blows again and I feel my hair brush against my shoulder and back.

'_My hair isn't that long to begin with_…'

It wasn't even cut. My hair is not cut at all and my uniform has somehow reverted back into the original one-piece red dress I wore as a genin. I still have the kunai I used in battle and my forehead protector from the war. I leap up onto a nearby tree branch and see that the meadow is cleared.

"I must have been sent back two years ago…but what time _is _it?" Judging by my hair and my clothing, I am certain that this is between the time of my first mission _and _the first phase of the Chuunin exam. I figure that returning to Konoha would help me.

The Yu no Kuni is northeast of Konoha, quite some distance away. I'm actually _grateful _that I woke up at this hour; what is it? One, two in the morning? Anyway, as I leap through the thick forests and run through the gleaming pastures, I keep wondering to myself: how is it that I am _here_? And what has Kakashi-sensei's mangekyo have to do with it? It must have played a large role since I _fell_ into his Sharingan dimension.

Perhaps a look at Konoha's ninjutsu scrolls will help me somewhat.

忍道

The front gate is currently guarded by two jonin; it's about seven in the morning. Knowing Kakashi-sensei, he won't show up at the meeting spot until eight forty-five or at least _nine_. One of the guards yawn and his partner stares at him with distaste.

"Why can't you _pretend_ to look alert?" he snapped. His partner shrugged and leaned on the table, his elbow propped on the surface, "Because. It is seven in the morning. We have been here since _midnight_."

I'm actually surprised that they haven't sensed me yet; and they call themselves _jonin_. Then again, I can still perform medical ninjutsu and other techniques of high caliber because I still have that information. In the midst of their bickering, I take this time to transform into a cat, since I always see fugitive pets run back and forth between the gates.

"And what are you going to do if _Sandaime_ comes out and sees us?"

"Pretend to be at attention, of course!"

I pass them smoothly and then I sprint to the streets. It's so strange seeing Konoha intact for once; all the faces of those who have died the past few years, it's wonderful to see them. No one even notices the tabby cat stealthily jumping onto windows and balconies. Finally, I arrive in my own room and quickly transform back into myself.

'_Now, where's the calendar…?_' I hide my forehead protector and kunai between my mattresses and turn up at the calendar.

"The Chuunin Exam starts tomorrow," and that means that Sasuke-kun is still with us.

Sasuke-kun is still with us. _Sasuke-kun is still with us_. I can feel my heart thump wildly at the thought that he is still safe from the corruption of Orochimaru and Madara. Though I want to run to him; run to him and warn him about everything, I must practice restrain.

I must be stealthy.

I walk to my mirror and stare intensely at my 12-year-old self. I point at the kunoichi staring back and say very sternly, "You will _not _jeopardize this."

This is a mission. A rare mission only given to those who just so happen to stumble upon the opportunity. Though I know not what the objective of this task, I am willing to go and find out. And to do that, I must restrain myself and try to not bring attention.

'_Sakura, are you still here? You're going to be late!_' Okaa-san calls from downstairs. I glance at the clock on my wall, seven fourty-two. I _guess_ I should leave to meet the others now.

"Okay, kaa-san! I'm leaving now!"

忍道

"Sakura-chan, you're late!" Naruto, still an idiot, runs up to me and grins. I roll my eyes and bonk him upside the head, "Idiot, it's only eight. Sensei won't be here until eight-fourty-five or nine!"

He rubs his head and laughs sheepishly, "Oh, that's right."

In all honesty, I find it rather difficult to act like I'm _better_ than Naruto. It's difficult simply because he is the Child of Prophecy, the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, and the only son of _Yondaime_. It's much easier lashing out at his idiocy rather than his current incompetence. I'm actually a little upset at myself for thinking I was a shinobi of higher caliber than Naruto.

I shake my head at my loud team mate and pass him; Sasuke-kun is leaning against the bridge's railings, his eyes closed; the normal "cool guy" stance. Just watching him here, alive and well and away from any mortal danger, overwhelms me. I clear the lump in my throat and approach him.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun," I say, knowing that he isn't going to give me a proper greeting. As expected, he scoffs and nods his head in my direction. I can't help but to smile because this is just like the old times.

Naruto scowls, "_Ano ne, Sakura-chan_! Why do only say hi to Sasuke, and not me!"

I turn around and summon my worst face, "_Because Naruto. Mind your business, you __**idiot**_!" I respond. He pouts, but says nothing else.

Ah, acting like little Sakura is tiring. I haven't had sleep since _before_ the last battle I came from. How troublesome…

'_I don't think they'll say anything if I sit and keep silent._'

I move on the other side of the bridge and sit, sliding my legs out the railings, dangling from the water beneath. My arms are supporting my weight as I lean back on them; the sky looks so much bluer when we're all here as a team.

More time passes and I'm about ready to pass out from fatigue. I manage to consume a sugar pill while they aren't looking; and they aren't ever looking because they're both _bickering _with one another right now. They're probably still tense from our mission with Tazuna-san; I'm actually a bit surprised that we're working on our teamwork right now. But, we have just started, so I can't really expect much, now can I?

Too lazy to intervene-slash-take Sasuke-kun's side, I lay back onto the wooden surface.

The sun is so warm; I wonder if Kakashi-sensei will care if I'm sleeping when he comes…

'_Sakura, we need your assistance on the Eastern front!'_

'_Yes!' _

_Kabuto has long ago cast the Impure World Resurrection jutsu and armies of dead shinobi were rising amongst the fields. As I dove through the clusters of brawls, I take note on each and every face I see, paying special attention to those I recognize._

_I stop at my destination and see Kakashi-sensei. Fighting more Akatsuki members; as I advance closer to sensei, I see his Sharingan whirl and Kakashi-sensei weave the signs of Raikiri…_

_He charges…_

"Sakura-chan, wake up!" Naruto shakes my shoulder roughly and I shoot right up, restraining my arm from punching him in the face; it's a force of habit. I turn around groggily and notice us on the bridge, still waiting. I stretch and rub my eye, "What time is it?"

Naruto looks at me almost as if I had the plague and then shrugs, "I don't know. It's been longer than usual, where is Kakashi-sensei!" he yells the last part, frustrated. I pull myself up on my feet and stretch. Sasuke-kun is still leaning on the opposite side, probably cursing our apparent incompetence. A spike of chakra punctures the air and I know Kakashi-sensei will soon be here.

忍道

"Hey guys! I got lost!" Kakashi-sensei emerged through the puff of smoke. We looked at him, and I prepared for the daily duty of chastising sensei for being so late. I cleared by throat and inwardly grinned; I missed doing this.

"_Stop lying to us with a straight face_!" I yelled, Naruto stood behind me, fully agreeing and Sasuke-kun remained in his spot, cool and silent, as usual. Sensei scratched his head and smiled sheepishly, not at all attempting to look apologetic.

Sensei waved my accusation off and hopped down to our level. I actually forgot how _tall _he was…or maybe I'm just short.

Not like Naruto though.

And as expected of my team mate, Naruto jumped up in Kakashi-sensei's face, begging him for an 'exciting mission' because all of the previous ones had been too easy, not that I remember them. Naruto was grinning to himself, probably fantasizing some absurdities and I raised a brow.

"I'm not even going to bother with you today…" I mutter. I noticed Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei already moving, and I figured I'd have to act 'myself', just to keep tradition. I grabbed Naruto's collar and dragged him, "No, Sasuke-kun, wait!"

The mission wasn't very difficult or strenuous; we just had to run a few errands for various villagers and for almost all of them, Naruto overdid each of the jobs. I ended up having to support Naruto as he limped back with us.

"You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard, you moron," I scolded. Naruto, sporting a swollen cheek and eye, merely responded with a "haahh".

Sasuke-kun clicked his tongue and turned ever so slightly in our direction, "Can't you take care of yourself?" he asked, rather arrogantly. I inwardly sighed, knowing that Naruto was going to get worked up about this and that they were going to fight like an old married couple.

"Ack, _teme_!" he clenched his fist and waved it at Sasuke-kun, who was already walking away from us. Kakashi-sensei sighed, opening his trademark orange novel, "It seems that their teamwork has been suffering lately." He said.

Naruto agreed while hostilely adding, "Yeah! It's your entirefault, Sasuke! You always want all the attention!"

Though it would have been my cue to take Sasuke-kun's side and abuse Naruto, I sat back and watched with Kakashi-sensei, both of us tired of their childish behavior.

'_We still are kids, after all_' I told myself.

Sasuke-kun snorted, "That's you, idiot. If you want me to stop making you look bad, then why don't you become _stronger _than me? Moron."

Naruto and Sasuke-kun glared ferociously at one another. I fought the urge to shrug, and decided that I should enjoy this. This was _much _better than any old flashback. A bird cawed and sensei looked up; Sandaime was probably calling all of the jonin together to discuss the Chuunin exams. We just had our Chuunin exams four months ago, Shikamaru was a proctor.

Sensei looked back at us rather calmly and snapped his novel shut. "We'll stop here for today; I have a report to submit."

"I'm going home then." Sasuke-kun declared and he began to walk away from us. I remembered this was when Sasuke-kun told me that my abilities were worse than Naruto's; in my free time, usually, I would go assist Tsunade-shishou or Shizune-san, but seeing as they aren't yet here, I have a choice: I can either go to bed or go to the library to read the scrolls.

"I guess I'm going to the library then," I said, waving to Naruto and Kakashi-sensei before heading in the same direction as Sasuke-kun. I could hear Naruto calling after me, "You're gonna ask Sasuke out, aren't you, Sakura-chan? Sakura-chan?"

I turned the corner and suddenly, I heard the pitter patter of zori on the cobblestone; Probably Konohamaru and his friends ready to bombard Naruto. Deciding that the coast was clear, I jumped up on the fence and ran its perimeter; the library was just on the other side. When I arrived, I was surprised (and a bit irritated) to see that Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon had somehow gotten in trouble with Kankurou and Temari.

Konohamaru was being held by the cape and Naruto was cursing at Kankurou; I expected Sasuke-kun to intervene at some point. I walked to the library door, which was behind the two Suna shinobi; I couldn't open the door. When I looked off at Kankurou and Temari again, they were looking at me.

"Can I help you?" I ask, a little bit irritated at the fact that I _knew _Kankurou had jammed the door with his chakra strings. Kankurou glared at me and dropped Konohamaru, "_Get lost_."

I couldn't help it, I really couldn't. Acting is _not _my forte and as Tsunade-shishou's second apprentice, I have somewhat of a shorter temper than I had before. In a normal situation, I would have run up to him and punched him in the face, but I remained still and tried my best to look intimidated. Kankurou grunted and approached me.

"Hey! Hey you! You'd better not touch Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled, running at Kankurou. Kankurou stopped and shoved Naruto onto the ground and he turned back to me. I watched as the puppeteer came close to me, and I shook, to add the dramatic effect.

He reached out and, as I predicted, Sasuke-kun threw a rock at his hand from the tree. Everyone looked up at the branch Sasuke-kun was currently perched on, and if you paid _close_ attention, you could actually sense Gaara sneaking up on us all.

"What are you doing in our village?" Sasuke-kun asked impolitely. I realized Sasuke-kun had distracted Kankurou from the door, but I couldn't just yet enter it without looking suspicious. Instead, I looked at Sasuke-kun and summoned my best infatuated expression. Naruto glared at him as he tried to comfort Konohamaru.

Kankurou scowled, "Hey you, get down here! I hate _show offs _the most…" he said. Temari yelped as Kankurou yanked his puppet off his back. I took this as the cue to enter the library; they didn't even notice me either.

"They sure do keep busy," I say to myself as I browse through the sections.

'_It was ninjutsu; very advanced ninjutsu, so I suppose I am supposed to look under…let me just pull out advanced-ancient ninjutsu and forbidden ninjutsu'_

Of course the "forbidden ninjutsu" scroll did not have the signs and circumstances under which you are able to use the jutsu, but there were brief discriptions. I looked through each section until I was able to find what I was looking for:

_Han Tokei Mawari _

_Though this technique is not necessarily a jutsu of any type, it is a maneuver that naturally occurs in the shinobi world. No shinobi can harness the power of this powerful art, but many can stumble upon the opportunity it grants. So far, there has only been one report of this jutsu being witnessed, though there is no exact proof. However, the science and mechanics of its inner-workings have been deciphered._

_Apparently, when the natural balance of the shinobi world has been greatly overthrown, if a neutral plane has been suddenly added to this unbalanced atmosphere, a ripple in the time space continuum can be triggered. Naturally, those who pass through the neutral plane end up at the source of the issue. It is the job of that shinobi to fix the issue in order to balance the future's natural equilibrium. This is, if you will, a do or die mission; failure is absolutely intolerable. When the mission is successfully delivered, the shinobi assigned the task will return to their own time._

That _must _have been the cause of it all. When Kabuto cast the Impure World Resurrection jutsu, that must have done the trick. And since the mangekyo opens up to another dimension, that would have been the neutral plane. Now, what is _my _mission?

"I assume that you've found the reason we're stuck here?" a sudden voice asked me; I jumped, and it felt like my heart was about to go into cardiac arrest. I sprawl out over the scroll and turn to my speaker.

Gaara watched me with an unfathomable expression. "Well? There's no point hiding it, Sakura. I know you were sent here too."

I remained silent for a few moments, not knowing if I should trust the former jinchuuriki of the shukaku. Gaara, not breaking eye contact, held up his own headband from the war. I yelp and flip the forehead protector over, checking to see if anyone saw, "Okay! Okay! I believe you, now will you put that away, before someone sees it?"

He did as I asked and sat there. I assume he was waiting for my answer; not wanting to risk exposure by talking, I pushed the article towards him and Gaara silently read the passage.

"How did you get here? I was pushed into Kakashi-sensei's mangekyo." Gaara's head remained downcast, but his eyes moved up to meet my curious stare. "Naruto and I were fighting Uchiha Itachi and he used his own mangekyo; there was an explosion and we both fell in."

Naruto? That didn't make any sense…Naruto was not the Naruto from our time; I stared at Gaara skeptically, "I'm assuming you saw how he acted. There's no way he could be here."

Gaara pointed at the passage, "Maybe he is. It might take longer for him to awaken since he has the Kyuubi; we just don't know when."

I frowned. It would be very helpful if Naruto were awake right _now_. "Ne, Gaara," I said, "Do you have the Shukaku in you right now?"

Gaara shook his head and clutched his stomach with his right hand, "No. It's probably because we are mentally our older forms; the Shukaku does not exist inside of me as my older form and since I took over my younger body, because I don't have a tailed beast, I don't have to struggle with the monster at all."

"Oh," I said; we both fell silent. I could hear Naruto yelling outside the library and Sasuke-kun responding to his verbal attacks, "I wonder what our mission is?"

"Well," Gaara started; he sat back in the chair and folded his arms, "Can you think of any drastic changes occurring anytime soon?"

The answer came rushing almost _immediately _to my mind. It was too obvious; how could I _not _see the opportunity before? Gaara nodded as my eyes widened; I shut my gaping mouth and rolled the scroll back up. He followed after me as I went to put the scrolls back, "How would _that _change the whole 'natural balance of the world'? It seems absolutely _irrelevant_!"

"Maybe not," Gaara said; we stood by the library exit. I noticed nobody was inside, probably preparing for the exam tomorrow; Gaara lowered his voice, "as of right now, Uchiha Madara's ultimate weapon is Uchiha Sasuke, not to mention Yakushi Kabuto. If you can prevent Orochimaru from attacking him in the first place, he won't be so vulnerable; we also have to take out Kabuto before he can do some real damage."

It makes sense and Gaara is a rather intelligent person, when he isn't being morbid or murderous. I nodded, "That makes sense…I'll have to plan for his arrival in the forest tomorrow; can I count on you if it gets out of hand?"

Gaara stuck his fist out and I could tell he was trying to grin. I smacked his fist with my own and grinned, "Let's get him."

つづく

**Author's notes: **I am being _completely _honest with everyone right now; these kinds of stories are probably the hardest to write simply because you have to have your research down and the characterizations and whatnot. I am hoping that I can sculpt Gaara's character better and that I can have Sakura establish a certain behavior similar of her 12-year-old self. I literally have the Naruto manga _in my face _as I type these chapters. Thanks for reading!

Reviews are _always _appreciated.


	2. before the storm

**Counterclockwise  
>Summary: <strong>I'm almost certain that this was the Fourth Shinobi War moments ago, so why am I waiting for Kakashi-sensei with Naruto and Sasuke-kun? – SasuSaku 

**Author's notes: ** Hey ya'll :D I just wanted to thank all of those who favorited, alerted, and reviewed the first chapter. It's been a while since I've written and I really appreciate you all for supporting the story.

****忍道

"I'll see you later to discuss things, yeah?" Gaara nodded firmly and quickly disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

I found it rather comforting that I had some people to share this burden with. I didn't expect Gaara to get caught that soon in the crossfire between sides, Naruto as well. Were we losing? I suppose not, since Kakashi-sensei basically tore open the space time continuum and dumped one of this students in.

As of right now, my first mission is to prevent Orochimaru from giving Sasuke-kun his curse mark, and though I have the advantage of knowing future events, I am not strong enough to kill him myself. I could probably take Kabuto on while he's still not investing in any forbidden techniques, but Orochimaru, to me, is impossible.

I may just have to let Gaara handle Orochimaru. Or even maybe Naruto, if Naruto decides to wake up. There was nothing else left to do for today, and I decided to go home and _sleep. _The idea of rest seemed so foreign to me that I forgot what it felt like to rest without worrying about an enemy slitting your throat in your sleep.

Walking out of the library, feeling relieved and exhausted at the same time, I sensed Sasuke-kun and Naruto nearby. I didn't bother to go and catch up with them; I really wanted my bed. Maybe my acting would improve with rest.

"Oh look, there's Sakura-chan!" Naruto leapt down from the fence; I noticed Sasuke perched on top as well. He looked irritated, "Sakura-chan, what were you doing?" Naruto asked.

"Returning a book," I reply, careful to add just the right amount of annoyance. Sasuke-kun jumped down from the fence and stood up straight; I smiled at him. This felt unfamiliar since I usually _cry _when I talk about him or think about him…

"Sasuke-kun," I say. I think about the deeply buried feelings that I hold and blush deeply. Sasuke-kun grunts and turns away, "I'm going home." He says suddenly, "At this rate, our teamwork is never going to improve because of that _moron_."

Naruto stomped in front of Sasuke-kun and stood on the tips of his toes, glaring in his face, "What'd you say?"

"I said that you _suck_, and you're _stupid_." Sasuke-kun replied. They growled at each other and I scratched the back of my head, clueless as to what I would do with them. I mean, they're best friends, and they fight all the time –

Come to think of it, I shouldn't really be talking either since I still fight with Ino_buta_-chan.

"Whatever, I'm going home." Sasuke-kun said. He walked past us, and I figured that it was time to embarrass myself (not really) in front of Sasuke-kun and Naruto. Flipping my long hair, I ran after him, "Wait, Sasuke-kun!" I say, making the pitch of my voice higher, the sickening sweetness of it made my stomach churn, simply because I am currently supposed to be in the infatuation phase.

Sasuke-kun stopped and turned and I could feel Naruto pointing and gaping behind us, muttering 'why is it always Sasuke?'

"A-Ah um…if you'd like, I mean, we could always work on _our _teamwork, just the _two _of us?" I suggest; the more I remembered what it felt like to have a crush on him, the easier it was for me to react the way I would have. Sasuke narrowed his eyes and shoved his hands in his pocket, "Honestly, you and Naruto are just the _same_."

Not particularly.

"If you have time to bother _me_, then why don't you use that time to go and train?" I repeated the worn out lecture mentally, "And to be frank with you, your skills are lower than Naruto's."

As a fifteen year old fighting in the fourth shinobi war, that isn't a rare thing. Then again, everyone sees Naruto as failure right now and no one believes in him. Well, no one other than Iruka-sensei and Hinata-san.

"Hey _teme_," Naruto snapped, "Shut up; did you see Sakura-chan come out of the library? She could have been returning a book that taught new ninjutsu, right Sakura-chan?"

"Something like that," I respond. My team mates shot me a quizzical expression and I laughed to myself, "Aw, well…maybe another time, ne Sasuke-kun? I'll see you guys later." I turned around and walked away from both of them, smiling widely; it felt good to be part of team 7 again.

忍道

"Sakura."

Gaara greeted as he appeared in my room; it was close to midnight and I sat at my desk, scribbling down the events that had happened on a scroll. I was expecting Kakashi-sensei to inform team 7 of our nomination to take the Chuunin exam later this morning and I needed to find a game plan as to how I should go about avoiding Orochimaru in the second phase.

"Hey," I respond from my desk, "have you seen anything strange lately? Like, there might be someone else here who shouldn't?"

"No."

I turned around in my chair and offered him the seat next to me; Gaara took a seat swiftly and watched as I wrote my story down on the scroll. In the event that we are caught and we have to explain ourselves, I wanted to have this scroll ready so I wouldn't have to explain so much. I finished the last stroke and sealed it, fusing my chakra with the seal; only I would be able to open its contents.

"Gaara, do have an idea of what we should do about Orochimaru?" I asked. Suna's Kazekage kept his unfathomable gaze locked on the sealed scroll, "We'll be fighting against Orochimaru, and right now, his arms are fully functional. We can't kill him; we just have to make sure that Uchiha Sasuke isn't bitten."

As Gaara quietly explained his suggestions, I listened intensely, hoping that we'd be able to save Sasuke-kun and give ultimately give Uchiha Madara a disadvantage.

It was nearing 5am and we had to end our briefing before most of the shinobi woke, and before Temari-san and Kankurou-san noticed that he was missing. They would probably comb through the _village _looking for their dangerous younger brother. Gaara stood and walked over to the glass door of my bedroom, he turned in my direction.

"I'm counting on you, Sakura. Failure is not an option." He said. I grinned and also stood, slapping his shoulder heartily, "It'll be fine. Just a little team effort's all we need; you'll be able to know where I am in the forest, won't you?"

"My tracking skills aren't incompetent. I'll see you later," Gaara opened the glass door and jumped from the balcony onto the rooftops ahead.

Turning back to my desk, I hid the scroll in my bookshelf and took out the kunai and forehead protector from my mattress; I placed both in my shuriken pouch and placed it on the top shelf in my closet. It wasn't long before I'd have to go meet with Sasuke-kun and Naruto; I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to go out and train, but I saw the great risk in being seen practicing chakra-enhanced taijutsu or medical ninjutsu.

I stretched and jumped onto the veranda.

'_Well, I should still train regardless, it's been a while since I've done so anyway and I need all the practice I can get_,' I disappeared and leapt towards the training field. At this hour, typically the streets are abandoned, save for the shop keepers who had to wake up to get ready for the busy day. As I passed Naruto's apartment, I could see Ichiraku Ramen's smoke rise, Teuchi-san must have been awake with Ayane-chan.

I passed the academy and leapt into the training fields. Facing the three wooden training dummies, I sat down in front of them, feeling rather conflicted.

This mission is a one in a lifetime type; way more risky than any S-ranked mission. Could a two-man team really pass it? I could feel a twitching emerge within myself and suddenly, I stood up.

'_Shannaro! Stop thinking that way, we need to save Sasuke-kun from Orochimaru and take down that Uchiha Madara!_'

I looked around, shocked.

"How can you still exist? I thought you disappeared years ago…" I said to Inner Sakura; I could feel the raw inner emotions from my childhood come alive from within me. I closed my eyes and tried to visualize.

…I could see myself, as a 12-year-old. The actual genin me. I walked towards her and stopped; there in her red kunoichi dress and long pink hair, she stared back at me, looking rather dumbfounded. Inner Sakura stood beside her.

"Are you gonna stand there all day or are you gonna say something," Inner Sakura barked to the younger me. Sakura glanced over her shoulder and shook out of her daze.

"So…" Sakura began; her voice was higher than I actually thought it would be, "…let me get this straight: _you_ are from two years from now, am I right?"

I nodded and she continued, "And you are currently in the Fourth Shinobi War _because _of…?"

For a moment, I debated on whether or not I should tell her everything. Seeing the younger me in my inner psyche might upset the space time continuum and I would automatically fail the mission.

Sakura stomped her foot and tossed her arms up in the air, "Aw c'mon! It's not like I can _tell_ anyone, I'm stuck in here with her," she pointed a thumb at Inner Sakura, who scoffed.

I nodded, agreeing with her. "I can't tell you _too much_, I'm just taking extra precautions, so don't be offended. Right now, powerful shinobi are after my friend," back then, I didn't know Naruto was the Kyuubi, and it would be unwise to tell her that he is a jinchuuriki, "if they get a hold of this friend, the world will be in danger. I was caught up in the blast of an ambush and ended up back here. If I can prevent anything from happening from Sasuke-kun, then it will give the enemies a great disadvantage. How much do you know anyway?"

Sakura shrugged, "Not very much, it's difficult to see outside of my body since there are three of us here. I can somewhat hear you; it sounds echoed though because, and I'm just guessing this, but probably because you don't exist yet."

I shook my head, "It's fine. We don't need to know the specifics right now; I just need to get this mission done. Sasuke-kun is in danger right now, and I have to save him from the future."

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's plump face paled unhealthily. She strode over to me and gripped my arm; I noticed that I was now in my 15-year-old form. Tears starting rolling down her cheeks and she wailed, "Please, protect Sasuke-kun! Don't let anything happen to him! Please!" she begged.

"_If anyone touches him, you'd better send then straight to _Hell_, shannaro_!" Inner Sakura exclaimed; she flailed and I smiled a bit. I placed my hand on Sakura's shoulder and looked her in the face, "I won't let _anything_ happen, to Sasuke-kun, okay?"

She sniffled once or twice, "You promise?"

"Yes, Sakura, I promise."

忍道

"Kakashi-sensei is late. Again." I said, sitting against the bridge's railings. Sasuke-kun, Naruto, and I waited on the bridge for Kakashi-sensei. As expected, I received Kakashi-sensei's message when I returned home from training.

Naruto groaned loudly and threw his hands up on his head, "He's _always_ late! It's his fault I overslept and I couldn't even wash my face or brush my teeth!"

I grimaced and moved away from the jinchuuriki, "You're so gross, Naruto."

I could feel Sasuke-kun growing irritated with the two of us and I turned around and looked at him. I knew he could feel my staring at his face, but he did not meet my gaze. I smiled and ran up to Sasuke-kun. The Little Sakura within me fluttered and I felt warmth erupt in my heart.

"Sasuke-kun?" I said. My dark-haired crush glanced in my direction and then looked away; he gave me an acknowledging grunt. I twisted my fingers together as I rocked back and forth on my feet.

"Are you really planning on fighting Gaara?" I asked. His dark eyes moved in my direction once more, and he grunted again.

"Yes." I forgot how difficult it was to get him to speak. Naruto sat behind us sulking, muttering 'why is it _always_ Sasuke?'.

"Is there anyone else you want to fight against?" I asked again. Sasuke-kun turned a little more in my direction; I could see the clear surprise in his dark eyes, but he fought to hide it. "Why are you so interested? It's not like you can stand up against them."

I raised a brow at Sasuke-kun and crossed my arms, "Because the Chuunin exams are coming up."

"Chuunin exams?" even Naruto stopped his whining to listen. I nodded, "Yes, the Chuunin exams. That's why all these foreign shinobi are coming to Konoha."

Naruto was fully at attention and appeared in my face; I recoiled for his closeness, "Ne, ne Sakura-chan! What's that? What's the Chuunin exams?"

"It's an exam genin can take, and if they pass it, they are able to become a Chuunin," Kakashi-sensei said, appearing out of nowhere, "And I've already nominated you three to take it."

We all spun around and Naruto launched himself on our late teacher, "Sensei! Kakashi-sensei, thank you, thank you, _thank you_, thank you; I love _you_!" he screamed as he hugged Kakashi-sensei. When Kakashi-sensei handed us our nomination slips, I could feel my heart beat wildly.

I had less than 24 hours to prevent all of this from happening.

"Of course, the exam itself is not mandatory," Kakashi-sensei continued, "whether to take the exam or not is up to you three. You're dismissed."

Naruto grinned and I could sense Sasuke-kun shivering in excitement. I groaned lowly and rubbed my temples. As we walked back to town, Naruto kept going on and on about how exciting the whole exam was going to be.

"There's going to be a lot of strong guys in this thing!" Naruto said aloud. Both of my team mates fell silent, probably thinking of all the strong opponents they were going to face. I huffed and kept silent, keeping up with their quickening pace.

Only a sudden presence in the air stopped me in my tracks. Naruto and Sasuke-kun didn't seem to notice me falling behind; I took this time to take advantage of their daydreaming and I leapt into the trees. A kunai flew through the air and passed by me; I barely dodged it and landed upon a branch.

'_Hey Sasuke, where'd Sakura-chan go?' _I heard Naruto ask.

I inwardly cursed as a masked shinobi appeared in front of me; it was Iruka-sensei testing us. I played along with this charade and leapt off the tree branch towards Iruka-sensei. He silently took another kunai out of his holster and leapt forward towards me.

We collided halfway with a loud _clank_! Sensei threw his right hook out and I grabbed it, throwing him over my shoulder, I had to pump a little chakra in my limbs to increase my strength; he was flung through the forest and crashed onto the concrete with a loud thud. I dove after him, kunai in hand.

"_Shannaro_!" I exclaimed, throwing the kunai in the direction he fell. I heard an audible yelp. When I emerged from the trees, I realized that he had taken that moment to cast a genjutsu. I noticed this mostly because I had apparently hit Sasuke-kun with my kunai. Ignoring the genjutsu, I moved forward, stepping through the illusion. Sasuke-kun disappeared in a puff of smoke and I was alone again.

I quickly sprinted to catch up with Naruto and Sasuke-kun. Naruto pouted, "Mou, Sakura-chan, where were you?"

I scowled and flicked his forehead, "I heard something in the forest and went to go check it out, idiot."

Naruto's blue eyes widened and he gaped at me, "By _yourself_? Sakura-chan, that's dangerous!" I rolled my eyes and passed him. I could feel Little Sakura and Inner Sakura's growing irritation from Naruto's presence and I inwardly shook my head.

Am I really _that _hot headed?

Anyway, soon enough we got back to the village and went our separate ways. I headed straight in the direction of the library, feeling rather uneasy about the upcoming exam. It was nauseating; knowing that Sasuke-kun was a crazed monster under the control of some old decrepit man who should have been dead _years _ago. And what's worse is that had Orochimaru not been so lustful for the Sharingan eye, we would not have been in this fix in the first place.

How the shinobi world irritates me…

How the Chuunin Exams irritate me, but it is a mission; I'm going to have to pick up Naruto's nindo until he wakes up, that moron.

I won't give up until I have succeeded.

忍道

Morning. The day of exams. I wasn't at all worried for the written portion of the exam, since it's basically a test to see how well you can cheat. I didn't even _cheat _when I took it.

I quickly dressed and headed over to the academy, where I told Naruto and Sasuke-kun we'd meet. They were both already there and waiting. Seeing them how they normally are (not fighting to the death) didn't help to ease the twinge of anxiety I felt.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted. I smiled half-heartedly, "Hi…"

Silently, the three of us entered the building and immediately saw the two disguised Chuunin bullying Gai-sensei's students and the other genin.

"You should quit now," one of them said. Tenten stood in front of them and tried to reason, "Please, let us through."

The Chuunin struck her across the face and she collided with the wooden floor. I was barely interested in what they were saying, since I had heard their lecture the previous time about how hard the Chuunin exams were and how they failed it three times.

Little Sakura began to panic inside and I tried my best to calm her down.

'_It'll be fine, I promise._' I realized that the more she came to trust me, the more she could hear and listen to. I didn't mind; I didn't care what happened to me anymore. I just wanted Uchiha Madara (and Orochimaru) defeated by someone.

Sasuke-kun made his way to the front, and Naruto and I followed suit. He stood in the circle, a small smirk plastered to his face. My heart fluttered from the hint of visible amusement on Sasuke-kun's face.

"Let us through, and while you're at it, dispel the genjutsu; we're supposed to be on the _third _floor." Sasuke-kun said, his deep voice clear and confident, if not, arrogant. The two Chuunin at the door passed glances at each other and turned their attention back to us. "So you noticed?"

"Sakura," he addressed me and I looked up, "You must have noticed it first, right?"

I could feel a blush appearing on my cheeks because I knew he thought I was worried about the exam. I decided to play along, just so his efforts wouldn't seem wasted, "Huh?"

"Your analytical ability and knowledge of genjutsu is the most improved on our squad," he said, now fully facing me. I could see a small smile appearing on across his face and I returned it before turning back to the two Chuunin, "Of course I did!" I said, "We're on the second floor."

"Not bad," one of them said, "but all you did was _see through it_!"

He sprung in our direction, ready land a kick on one of us, most likely Sasuke-kun. Sasuke-kun moved also and before the two could make an impact, Lee-san appeared out of nowhere and caught both blows.

Not really wanting to deal with the two Chuunin's trickery, Lee's embarrassing profession of love, or Naruto's sulking, I walked past the hullabaloo and headed towards the testing room.

My mission would be starting soon.

忍道

"Sakura-chan, wait! Wait up!" Naruto was really annoying me; how heavily does he have to _sleep_? When he wakes up, I'm going to punch him so hard; he's going to end up in his _parents' childhood_. Both my team mates had caught up and judging by their expressions, they had to opportunity to meet Neji-san as well.

"You've been all over the place lately, Sakura-chan. Are you okay?" Naruto asked. I nodded my head and walked ahead of them, "I just want to get to the testing room. It would be wasteful of us to stay back there with the 'competition' that couldn't even see through a simple _genjutsu_." I used the word 'competition' loosely.

"Oh," Naruto laughed loudly, "You're right Sakura-chan! Those losers are no match for _us_!"

Sasuke-kun snorted and I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Let's just go before something else happens."

"Hey you, the one with the good eyes."

I inwardly groaned; I was trying to avoid this. We looked up and saw Lee-san standing at the top of the staircase; his gaze fixed on Sasuke-kun. "What?" Sasuke-kun said.

Lee-san jumped down to our level and stood up straight, "Will you fight me here?"

I looked up at the clock: another half-hour until the exam. I slapped my forehead and clicked my tongue, "We don't have _time_, you guys can fight la –"

"- shut up, Sakura."

I honestly could not take any more of these _distractions_ before the exam. I grinded my teeth clenched my fist. I cannot understand how carefree everyone could be; especially since time is of the essence (in mine and Gaara's case). When I looked back in their direction, Lee-san was looking at me, a blush on his face.

He winked at me and blew a kiss in my direction; Little Sakura screamed terrified and begged me to dodge it. I scratched my head roughly and let a frustrated huff of air out.

"_We. Have. To. Go. Now._" I bit out. Both Sasuke-kun and Naruto stared at me, surprised at my impatient tone. When I realized that they weren't going to move without fighting with Lee-san, I spun on my heel and proceeded in the direction of the testing room. I wasn't going to get in trouble.

"Sakura-chan, where are you going?" Naruto asked. I didn't answer; if he wanted to know so badly, he'd have to find out. I made my way up the stairs and opened the following door to the entrance hallway; Gaara stood on the other side.

I noticed Kakashi-sensei sitting on the window sill on the far side. As I passed him, I slid a small communication device in his hand. He nodded slightly in acknowledgement and we proceeded on our way. I stopped before Kakashi-sensei, who was engrossed in his book. He looked up at me surprised.

"You're by yourself, Sakura?" he questioned. I shook my head and pointed to the door I just came through, "No, Sasuke-kun and Naruto are getting acquainted with some thick-browed freak named Rock Lee." I responded.

Kakashi-sensei looked at me briefly and then snapped his book shut, "Then we'll wait for them. They still have 20 more minutes left."

The boys eventually made it, Naruto grumbling and Sasuke-kun looking shaken. I threw my hands on my hips and grinned, "So? How'd it go?"

"Sakura-chan! That eyebrow freak whooped Sasuke! You should've seen it!" as Naruto energetically told me of how Sasuke-kun was defeated, I watched the Uchiha from the corner of my eye. He looked haunted, like he was actually _surprised _that his Sharingan didn't work against Lee-san's taijutsu. I let Little Sakura inspire my next response.

"Naruto, you must have been imagining something; Sasuke-kun is _invincible_," I said.

"No way!" Naruto screamed, "Sasuke seriously had his butt handed to him!"

I walked over to our dark-haired team mate and patted him on the back, "It's okay, Sasuke-kun."

He glared at me and shoved my hand off, "Shut up."

"Okay, okay," Kakashi-sensei said, silencing us. "Now, you can properly start the exam."

He was smiling underneath his mask, "I'm proud of all three of you for coming today, especially you, Sakura." I grinned and gave him a thumb up.

Naruto leaped into the air and let out a woot, "We'll do our best, Kakashi-sensei! Let's go!". With one last wave to Kakashi-sensei, we entered through the doors. My mission was finally beginning.

When we entered the room, there were other shinobi already waiting, attempting to fry us with their glares. From now on, I was no longer to act like a genin because this is an S-rank. I must act on the spot and there is no room for error.

Naruto and Sasuke-kun must have noticed my sudden change of emotion because they both glanced in my direction, Naruto looking more worried than Sasuke-kun.

Yakushi Kabuto infiltrated my vision and I locked my jaw, ignoring the rest of the Rookie Nine approaching us. Not even Inobuta-chan, hanging all over Sasuke-kun, could distract me now.

Even though I wasn't 100 percent ready to take on Chuunin exams again, I was ready to change the world. And it all started with this.

つづく

**Author's notes: **This chapter was a _doozie_, oh my goodness. I'm happy it's finished though :D I hope you all like it so far and I'm sorry it's going slowly; a good story takes time to develop and I'm trying to deliver a good one.

_Please review_.


	3. survival of the fittest

**Counterclockwise  
>Summary: <strong>I'm almost certain that this was the Fourth Shinobi War moments ago, so why am I waiting for Kakashi-sensei with Naruto and Sasuke-kun? – SasuSaku

**Author's notes:**Hay guise :] School starts in three days for me, so I'm gonna try and do as much as I can. Wish me luck!

忍道

"Sasuke-kun, you're late!" Ino appeared about of nowhere and threw her arms around Sasuke-kun's shoulders; she smiled sweetly at him, and I could feel his irritation from where I was standing. "I haven't seen you for a while, so I've been waiting in excitement." She continued.

I could hear Little Sakura screaming with Inner Sakura, but I refused to let them distract me. I inwardly told them to keep quiet and that Ino should be the least of their worries.

Ino, Naruto, and Sasuke-kun were all staring at me, probably waiting for me to respond. I sure do hope I didn't disappoint them.

"O…Oh, it's okay, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, purposely blocking Ino and Sasuke-kun from my sight; he waved his arms back and forth and laughed nervously. I cast Naruto a glance, looked at Ino and Sasuke-kun, and then turned back to the competition.

They all glared at us ferociously.

" – you guys are taking this stupid test too? Make sure you don't die." Shikamaru and Choji approached us; Shikamaru looking irritated and Choji eating another bag of potato chips. He didn't talk, he just chewed loudly.

"Oh, it's the Idiot Trio!" Naruto said loudly.

"Stop calling us that." Shikamaru snapped. Ino looked over Sasuke-kun's shoulder and spat her tongue out at me, I, for sake of tradition, repeated the gesture, "Sasuke-kun's _all _mine." She said.

"The hell he is!" Little Sakura snapped. Her voice came through my mouth and I inwardly groaned, "Now, get your _hooves_ off of him, Ino_buta_!"

'_Sakura, cut that out! We don't have time for you and Ino to fight._' I said sharply to myself.

'_Sorry, I couldn't help it…_' she laughed sheepishly and I sighed impatiently. '_Just try to control your outbursts, okay? Like, try and go sleep or something_…'

'_Oh. Gotcha'_

"Oh hey, there you guys are!"

Kurenai-sensei's team appeared out of the crowd. Kiba was hooting and hollering, basically making an even bigger scene in a room of intimidating genin. When Kiba, Shino, and Hinata-san approached us, the conversation got even noisier.

I could tell that the other test takers were growing irritated, but there wasn't much that they could do. I had tossed out the normal Sakura just for the sake of this exam, and if they thought I was acting strange, then so be it.

The safety of everyone was at stake and I could not jeopardize anything.

"Who do those stupid kids think they are?" a group of Amegakure ninja murmured amongst one another. I do recall Kabuto telling us that they had a nasty temper; I inwardly smirked. I wonder how they would fare against Tsunade-shishou…

"Hey you guys, keep it down!" my heart beat faster as I spun on my heels. Yakushi Kabuto was approaching us. Looking at his appearance, it was very easy to believe that he was on our side. He had a Konoha forehead protector, a friendly smile, and a willingness to speak to us rookies.

But, that also meant that he was the least trusting. Typical ninja skill: approaching the bait with stealth. I was also surprised at how fast everyone bought his good guy disguise, even Sasuke-kun.

But, no matter how much more mature he was than us, he still believed Kabuto just like a child. Should I kill him or should I track his movements? I should have asked Gaara when I saw him yesterday morning. I pretended to look interested while Kabuto showed his ninja info cards to everyone.

"Gaara even went on a B rank mission, and get this: apparently, he returned from all his missions without a scratch on him." Kabuto said. Everyone around me looked intimidated; I could see Gaara looking at me from the far side of the room.

I bowed my head somewhat in acknowledgement and Gaara did the same. It was coming soon and I couldn't wait until we got this stupid test over and done with. As Naruto prepared his overplayed speech, I clenched my fists.

I could still sense Kakashi-sensei on the other side of the door.

We all stood silently in the grave atmosphere. And then Naruto decided to let a determined battle cry; I inwardly facepalmed. Naruto grinned as he pointed to the other challengers, "Listen here bastards!" he yelled, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm not going to lose to any of you! Got that?"

If Naruto could wake up, I would appreciate that. Come to think of it, even if he were the 15-year-old Naruto, he probably would have responded in the same manner. The glares from the other genin were simply _frightening_…to Little Sakura. She begged and begged for me to 'shut that idiot up'.

Ino ran over to me immediately, "Hey, _what's with him_?" she screeched. She turned to me and pressed her face against mine, "What's the point in provoking everyone?"

I raised my fist and smacked her head. "Calm down," I said, "you know how Naruto is."

I walked up to Naruto, who was still grinning like the moron he was, and pulled his ear, "YOU need to calm down. You don't want them to kill you before the exams start, do you?" I said harshly.

"_Ow ow ow, _that _hurts_, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said. I growled and yanked him down to our level. A chakra whirred through the room, flying towards us. Sound ninja.

Their arrogance astounded me. I could hear them approaching closer and closer, zipping through the crowd of angered genin. In that instant, there were many things I could have done to them; I could have stopped each of them by clothes pinning them, but I'm sure I would greatly injure them.

I could also cast a subtle genjutsu to stop them in their tracks; I could probably even trip them up with my chakra, but instead, I let Kabuto handle them. It was all a façade anyway. And as he crouched on the ground, throwing up and coughing, I looked at the sound ninja who inspired me to become stronger.

Such arrogant shinobi would not last for long in this exam.

"How pathetic," one of them said, "Aren't you a fourth year veteran?" We all crouched down beside Kabuto; he wiped his mouth and coughed again.

The same sound ninja spoke up, "Write this down on your cards: the three sound ninja, definite future chuunin."

I scoffed audibly; I couldn't help it, really. The three's gazes snapped in my direction and the hotheaded one, Zaku, appeared before me. "What was that?" he asked dangerously. I did not like his self-righteousness and cast him a sharp glare.

I'm certain everyone was shocked by my reaction. "Oh nothing," I said, but it was easy to hear my hostile tone. "Don't you think it is unwise to be starting such a racket this early in the morning? I would find it rather foolish considering the fact that you aren't in your homeland anymore."

"Sakura - !" Ino gasped and I held my hand up.

"Rather than bullying other test takers, wouldn't it be more productive of you lot to _meditate _or something? I don't know if you realize it or not, but you three have put yourself on the map. You'll be targeted by many teams in this room; work on your stealth." I took this time to analyze their chakra flow; my knowledge of analyzing was not the _best_, as I had just started learning how before this mission, but I was able to gather useful information from them.

I would be sure to keep an eye on them during the second phase. The first speaker, Dosu, chuckled darkly, "You certainly have attitude, little girl. But can you back up your lecture?"

I could _afford_ mouthing off to them, simply because I knew they'd be coming after us anyway. I frowned at Dosu and shrugged.

"Eh, we'll see. I've never really tried." I openly admit. I didn't get a response; an audible 'poof' entered the room.

"_Alright, settle down! The first test is about to begin!_"

忍道

Alright, question one. It really is a good thing I remembered the important parts of the answers for this test.

The room is _packed_ with chuunin proctors and I can feel that everyone is nervous – _scribble scribble_ – someone just got caught. I glance around the room; sitting here, with a chuunin-esque way of thinking, it's actually obvious that some of these students are cheating.

Sasuke-kun is using his sharingan, Naruto is panicking, Hinata-san is debating on whether or whether not she should give him her answers –

…_Akamaru_ is telling Kiba the answer he sees and Tenten is fixing up a mirror attached to the ceiling. All are very formidable and praiseworthy tactics. I untie my forehead protector and place it on my desk at an angle, to get a look at how other shinobi are fairing.

"Excuse me!" Kankurou rises with his hand raised. "What?" Morino-san snaps.

"Bathroom." Kankurou excuses himself from the room with another Chuunin.

I finish the ninth question with fifteen minutes to spare.

I see Ino weaving signs…Ino's gonna use her mind switching technique on me. Usually there's a three second delay of her –

…_one…_

-weaving the jutsu and activating it – _two_ – so, I have one second to dodge it.

_Three_!

I drop my pencil on the ground and bend over to pick it up as Ino releases her technique; she misses me and ends up hitting the person sitting in front of me: That sound nin, Kin.

I couldn't risk Ino making her way into my mind and finding that I have two alter-egos residing in my brain.

A good fraction of the room has cleared out by now and everyone else is waiting for the time to pass. Morino-san smirks darkly at the lot of us and I stare at the chalkboard.

忍道

"Okay, now we will start the tenth question," he announced at last. "Before we get to it, I'd like to go over the added rules for this question."

The tension in the room thickened I could hear many hearts pounding. I wonder how nervous I was back then…

He stopped when the door opened and Kankurou entered.

"Heh…nice timing; was your doll playing beneficial?" he asked condescendingly and Kankurou fell silent, astonished that Morino-san could see through his puppet, who I just noticed now.

"Just sit down." Kankurou did as he was told before Morino-san began.

"First, for the tenth question, you must decide whether you will take it or not."

This was the part that I forgot about. For this tenth question, if you got it wrong, you would automatically be dismissed from the examination area with your team mates. What this really was a test to see how long us genin could hold our ground with our gathered information.

In addition to that, if you answered the question incorrectly, you would also be banned from taking the Chuunin exam again, making it a bigger risk. This question itself was merely a bluff; Morino-san and the other chuunin were testing our abilities to be confident in our ability.

I can't really say that I hadn't fallen for their trick before, because I was just as nervous as the other genin.

Many people quit, and I remember considering also quitting, just to spare Naruto his dream of becoming Hokage. If we had quit now, we also would have been able to avoid Orochimaru; however, this is a growing experience for Sasuke-kun.

Not Orochimaru's attack, but a test to see how good his skills are. Certainly I couldn't deny him of that; I can't tell what that would do if we dropped out now.

I will just have to deal with the plan that Gaara and I hadn't even set up yet. The two of us, against a _sannin_.

With Gaara standing in as Kazekage and me inheriting Tsunade-shishou's own Will of Fire, we should be able to do some damage. Once Naruto wakes up, we'll be set…

…but until then –

"_Don't underestimate me!_ I won't run!" Naruto burst as he smashed his fist against the desk. Hinata-san was smiling serenely as she watched her hero remind the proctors who he was. "_Even if I'm a genin forever, I'll will myself into becoming Hokage anyway, so I don't care_!"

All 78 of us present in that room had passed the first part of the exam.

忍道

Soon after Morino-san congratulated us all, Anko-san burst into the room and threw us all out at the starting point in front of the Forest of Death.

I remained silent and Naruto continued to proclaim his 'greatness' and Sasuke-kun watched the competition.

"_You'll soon find out why it's called the Forest of Death_," Naruto mocked Anko-san. From the corner of my eye, I could sense Orochimaru watching us intensely. He concealed his burning gaze behind the rice patty hat he donned.

Anko-san grinned at Naruto and then hurled a kunai at him, fast as lightening. She reappeared behind Naruto and licked his newly-cut cheek, politely telling him that people like him get killed easily in the forest. I cringed when Orochimaru had slithered over; Anko-san and Orochimaru's sickeningly sweet exchange was enough to make my blood curdle.

"Looks like we have a lot of bloodthirsty ones in this test," Anko-san chuckled darkly, "this is going to be fun…"

When she called our attention, Anko-san laughed sheepishly as she passed around the life agreement contract. My brow twitched as I signed the piece of paper for the second time; it was actually rather depressing, but at least we were finally at the peak of our mission.

"And a word of advice: don't die."

After we turned in our agreement forms, we were handed the wretched Heaven scroll. I glared at the stupid thing as we took it into our possession. Afterward, we were taken to gate 12 and waited with our guide until Anko-san dismissed us into the forest.

"_Okay, let's go_!" Naruto hollered. Sasuke-kun smirked (to which I had to stop myself from blushing) and I let out a deep breath of air. Reaching into my pouch, I pulled out the gray elbow protectors and black gloves I had also come here with and swiftly slipped them on. I was certain I would be utilizing my usual fighting style of chakra-enhanced blows and I did _not_ want to injure my arms.

The gates swung open and we leapt into the Forest of Death.

As soon as we all first heard the terrified shrieks of pure agony, I knew this was all real. Naruto laughed at the victims we heard.

"This is nothing, Sakura-chan!" he said as we walked together. Naruto suddenly stopped and then excused himself to go, as he had put it, 'take a leak'.

That boy…I honestly don't know what to do with him.

I heard a faint rustling from up in the trees and had just remembered: a hidden rain shinobi would attempt to act as Naruto.

Those must be his team mates in the trees.

"Sasuke-kun," I say. He looked over to me briefly and I silently tell him of the impostors in the tree. Sasuke-kun nods and Naruto comes out of the bushes.

"Ah, that took so long!" the impostor says in a very Naruto-like manner. I smile sweetly as this Naruto approaches us; Sasuke-kun clothespins him in no time and I disappear in the commotion to take care of the other hidden shinobi.

They are both startled at my sudden appearance and fall out of the tree in the clearing where Sasuke-kun and their team mate were, they both had disappeared into the shrubs; I pull a gloved fist back and punch one in the face. He flies into four or five trees, landing clumsily in a pile of limbs.

"You're stronger than you look," says the other one; he doesn't seem at all bothered that I had possibly killed his team mate. He pulls out a kunai and I raise my own, ready to engage.

"I prefer not to show off," I reply coldly.

We both sprint at each other and he throws his blade at me; I notice almost too late that it's an explosive tag and use a substitution technique. Activating my chakra scalpel, I strike his neck swiftly and he falls unconscious.

"_Sakura-chaaaan_!" Naruto screams. I stand up and go to my team mates; when they see me again, they notice my disarrayed appearance.

"What happened to you?" Naruto asked. I shrugged and sat down across from them; no one was in the area.

"The rest of that impostor's team was in the trees." I answered; Naruto and even Sasuke-kun both looked shocked.

"And you handled them both on your own!" Naruto asked me. I snorted and then nodded, combing my long hair to one side of my shoulder.

"They weren't too much of a challenge; besides, they both fell out of the tree," I lied; Sasuke-kun's eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn't respond. Instead, he leaned in close to us.

"We need to create a codeword so that we'll know that you are you," he said quietly.

I looked off to the side and saw a suspicious bamboo pipe poking out of the ground. It wasn't there before; closing my eyes, I breathe deeply and try to sense the chakra from all around.

From underneath the ground; it was dark and cold.

I realized that Orochimaru was listening in to our conversation. Not too far from we sat was Gaara. Remembering the communication device I had given him before the written test, I placed it in my ear, in case he was trying to communicate.

"_He's underground_," I whisper into the device. I took Gaara's grunt as acknowledgement before Sasuke-kun tackled me onto the ground.

"More enemies!" he hissed as he rolled off of my shocked body. A whirlwind of dust surrounded us and my heart thumped wildly as Orochimaru came closer; I created a kage bunshin of my own and leapt onto a high branch, next to Gaara.

"Hey." he greeted.

I nodded and waited for the dust to clear. We watched as my clone approached Sasuke-kun and cited the codeword without error. Soon after, Orochimaru, disguised as Naruto, had emerged from the bushes.

"Hey, are you guys alright?" he asked. I glanced over to Gaara and nodded in the direction of Sasuke-kun. Gaara placed his right hand out and clenched it shut, initiating a small sand storm.

Sasuke-kun grabbed my clone and hid; we both took this as the signal to move. I threw an explosive tag at Orochimaru and it exploded, clearing the sight obstruction. He watched, shocked, as the 'seemingly useless kunoichi from before' and the bloodthirsty, mysterious sand shinobi landed in front of him.

"Sakura-chan, who is that?" he asked. I glared and took out another kunai; Gaara also remained silent. We stared right through Orochimaru's disguise.

"We're stopping you right here, bastard." I say sharply. I could hear Naruto faintly hollering in the distance, probably facing the giant snake.

He would be okay.

As for my clone and Sasuke-kun; I had her use a chakra scalpel to render him unconscious when they made enough distance between Gaara, Orochimaru, and I.

Orochimaru chuckled darkly and licked his lips, "Are you sure you can?"

I notice the dark look in his eye and immediately recognize the subtle genjutsu. I dispel it before it reaches us while Gaara silently works.

"What's a Konoha ninja like yourself doing with a Suna ninja?" Orochimaru asked me. A vein twitched in my forehead and I became very irritated with his behavior.

Had it not been for him, we wouldn't have had to fight Suna during the third exam. That conniving snake…

"That's none of your damn business!" I snapped. I could tell that Orochimaru was taken back by my sudden temper, reminiscent of Tsunade-shishou. I growled as I shattered the earth with my fist; Orochimaru leapt off the flying pieces of earth, throwing multiple shuriken in our direction.

Gaara's sand wrapped around us both, blocking the attack. As the sand returned to his gourd, we heard another rustle in the trees.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

Sasuke-kun, to my dismay, appeared from the tree branch and set Orochimaru on fire. From what I could see, his face was almost melted. I recoiled as he grinned sinisterly and yanked the rest of it off.

"This will be fun." Orochimaru purred. The two disappeared again and I looked at Gaara.

With a reassuring nod, I knew that Sasuke-kun would be alright.

"Go follow them and make sure that bastard doesn't know anything, okay? I'll be in the area, so if you need backup, you know what to do."

"Thanks, Gaara."

忍道

"Sasuke-kun, behind you!" I screamed as one of Orochimaru's summoned snakes wrapped around the tree branch towards my team mate.

Why was it that Orochimaru didn't find my relation to Gaara suspicious? In addition to that, he has seen some of my ability, so why hadn't he done anything?

Perhaps his desire to attain the Sharingan was this great…to know that Itachi-san's efforts were wasted because of him…it's really unforgivable.

Sasuke-kun, slightly shaken, jumped off the branch and threw various projectiles as it came closer, "Get away!" he said loudly. Orochimaru emerged from the snake form and stopped coldly in his tracks as a barrage of shuriken and kunai were embedded in front of him.

We both looked up and saw Naruto grinning triumphantly at us.

"Sorry, I forgot the codeword."

As Naruto and Sasuke-kun wrestled with Orochimaru, I could only watch because I couldn't bring myself to fully expose myself to this evil person. Who knows what he would do if he found out.

'_Hey, what the _hell_ are you doing?_' Inner Sakura asked angrily.

'_You promised_!" Little Sakura whined. I groaned and ran a gloved hand through my hair; I really had no choice, did I?

"Okay, let's get going!" when I caught up with them – I've been falling behind often lately – I could see that Naruto was already leaking chakra from the Kyuubi. Orochimaru had summoned yet another snake to fight with him.

Seeing as I had not yet signed a summoning contract, I couldn't summon a great slug to aid me. I swallowed and dove head first, my right hand pulled back for another heavy blow. Orochimaru now had Naruto by the collar; I couldn't hear what he said, but I saw his hand glow with chakra.

"Five pronged seal!" Orochimaru said, palm thrusting Naruto sharply against his seal. Naruto yelped and slumped into unconsciousness. Sasuke-kun watched; he was terrified of this opponent. I pumped more chakra into my fist and dove deeper and deeper to the floor of the forest.

"_Shannaro_!" I exclaimed and hit Orochimaru as hard as I could. He spun off his snake and destroyed everything in his path as he disappeared in the rubble of it all. I looked down and saw Sasuke-kun, still staring, astonished and frightened into shock. Naruto was on the ground next to him, deeply injured and unconscious.

That should have done some heavy damage –

"You have quite some temper, little girl," the hairs on the back of my neck rose as Orochimaru appeared behind Sasuke-kun. "But don't worry, I'm not after _you_. No, I want something else."

And just like that, he leaned over and bit Sasuke-kun's neck, cackling as he disappeared from our sight.

つづく

**Notes**: Go crazy. This chapter was yet _another _doozy. I have a feeling that is what this story is gonna be like. I'll put more action in future chapters. To be totally honest, Orochimaru freaking pisses me off. Sorry to leave it at such a cliffhanger, but it'll be worth it. Maybe. Hopefully.

Review please (:


	4. the forest of opportunity

**Counterclockwise  
>Summary:<strong>I'm almost certain that this was the Fourth Shinobi War moments ago, so why am I waiting for Kakashi-sensei with Naruto and Sasuke-kun? – SasuSaku

**Author's notes: **Yeah, I'm pretty sure the current Naruto (Shippuuden) theme is my favorite…right next to Haruka Kanata.

忍道

Orochimaru's sick laughter went faint as he escaped from us and Sasuke-kun remained still, the teeth marks from that snake still present.

The curse mark appeared and then Sasuke-kun, quite literally, began to crumble.

I grinned widely as the curse mark on Sasuke-kun disintegrated; Gaara's sand clone of Sasuke-kun had worked wonderfully.

"_If I use one of my sand clones to pose as Uchiha, then Orochimaru won't realize much." Gaara told me. We sat in my bedroom, talking about what to do in the forest._

_It was much simpler than I thought._

"_I am able to make the clone use katon ninjutsu, so it will look like Uchiha; it can also appear to have a Sharingan, which is also very convincing."_

I remembered Gaara's last words before he left me that morning, "_Separate Uchiha from you and he will be fine_."

Having the Fifth Kazekage on your side certainly was a big advantage, seeing as Gaara was the commanding general of the Fourth Shinobi War.

"Checkmate." I said as the last grains of sand fell into a pile.

Regardless of whether he was a Sannin, he was still incapable of detecting Gaara's bunshin; Sasuke-kun was safe for now. I glanced over to Naruto, who was out cold.

Orochimaru must have done something with the seal Yondaime had placed on him; unfortunately, I don't know anything about sealing jutsu, so we would have to wait until we saw either Jiraiya-sama or Sandaime.

But how would we explain ourselves?

Scooping Naruto up and onto my back, I broke off into a sprint; about a mile and a half from where Orochimaru thought he had marked his victory, Sasuke-kun lay on the ground, unconscious.

I sighed in relief when I saw his neck free of the curse mark. We were sheltered underneath a large tree in another clearing; the tower should be another five kilometers from here.

Turning my attention to Naruto, I examined his current physical condition.

That idiot…if he had been able to wake up before, this wouldn't have happened to him in the first place. I shook my head at him and continued my examination.

'_Ripped tendons, sprained wrist_…' nothing my Mythical Palm Technique couldn't handle. I quickly weaved the signs and worked tried to work on Naruto's injuries. To my dismay, the technique wasn't working as well as I thought it would. My eyes began to feel heavy as I tried to push more chakra to heal Naruto's wound.

Why wasn't it working?

I looked down at my hands, through the glowing chakra that covered them; despite the protection I had given them, I saw that they were partially burnt and I even saw some blood from my knuckles. I further examined my hands and came up with a conclusion: my right hand suffered a minor fracture.

I sighed and attempted to heal Naruto as best as I could. Afterward, I bandaged both him and I up.

Knowing his ability to heal at an astounding rate, I knew he would be perfectly fine by the time he had woken up.

I grimaced at the stinging pain my hand was beginning to cause. In the midst of the fighting, the adrenaline had prevented me from feeling any kind of pain at all. I had no time to tend to my wounds as of now.

I would be expecting the sound ninja soon; in preparation, I set up a simplistic barrier around the premises. If they were to come in contact with the barrier, they would set off multiple explosions, all set to warn me of their arrival.

I know, however, that they were to attack in the morning.

As nightfall came nearer, I laid down between both of my team mates, tightly holding their hands, despite the protesting of my own injured hand.

The mere thought of knowing that we were together really did overwhelm me. Before I knew it, hot tears began to stream down my cheeks. I stifled the sobs that I heaved before and wiped my eyes dry.

"I'm really glad that you two are okay," I said. "Naruto, when we go back, Sasuke-kun will be waiting for us…"

More tears streamed down my face as I smiled happily.

"We'll be the same as before, and no one will ever take anyone away from us; it's just like you promised."

I sighed when I realized that they weren't going to answer me for some time. I closed my eyes and let my exhaustion take over my body.

As of right now till dawn, we were dead to the world.

忍道

Day break.

I woke up at dawn to check to see if the barrier I set up was in anyway penetrated; I was relieved to see that it wasn't.

The pain in my injury had somewhat subsided, and I was grateful for that. I wouldn't have the chance to go see a doctor for another three or four days.

Yawning and stretching, I washed my face and tightened my forehead protector around my head. It won't be too long now.

The bushes crunched and a squirrel emerged from it. I narrowed my eyes; they must be nearby. I smiled at the small rodent.

"What are you doing here?"

Looking up at me with pleading eyes, the animal ran towards me and I knew…

"An explosive note." I murmured as it came closer. Reaching over, I picked the frightened animal up and tore off the note, also dispelling it. The squirrel sighed in relief as I placed it back down on the ground and rubbed its head.

"Leave it to those savages to do something like that," I said to it. I pet it once more before going back to Naruto and Sasuke-kun, who were both still deep asleep. I sat in front of them and waited for them to come.

"Were you up all night?" Zaku asked me condescendingly. I turned and saw the three of them, just behind the barrier. I chuckled darkly and stood.

"No, I actually slept well." I answered clearly. Zaku and Kin scowled at me while Dosu analyzed the situation. I could tell the conclusion he was drawing up as well.

'Two unconscious people protected by a weak, pretty-girl, genin kunoichi. Her attitude is probably an act to scare us off. Well, it isn't going to work.'

Just like that too.

They hopped off the thick tree branch, setting off several explosive notes; their eyes widened in shock, but they calmed down once they realized that it had no effect on them whatsoever.

"You call that a defense?" Kin asked me. I shrugged and stood, both of my fists clenched tightly at my side.

"Nevermind that," Zaku snapped, "Wake up _Sasuke-kun_. We want to fight him."

Inner Sakura twitched within me and I walked out of the shadows, glaring sharply at all three of them, "Orochimaru's subordinates. It's actually funny how strong you think you are; you do know you're just his experiments, right?"

Zaku growled and advanced towards me, I grinned as he came closer, "You know about Orochimaru?" he questioned dangerously.

"Yes."

"Then we can't let you live."

I smirked when they stepped onto my second trap; I cut the rope that released the two giant logs that swung from the two threes the sound nin stood between. Dosu placed his hand against the wood and shattered it with his vibration jutsu.

"Is that all you have?" he asked me, "Weaklings like you, shouldn't mess with ninja like us."

I threw multiple kunai and shuriken, all of which were nullified by Zaku's air slicing attack. They flew towards me with incredible speed and I crouched, ready to spring at them –

'_Konoha Daisenpuu_!'

A whirlwind of leaves stirred up the clearing; through my whipping hair, I saw Lee-san standing in front of me, ready to protect me. I smiled softly.

"Lee-san…"

"Sakura-san, I told you I would protect you with my life."

How chivalrous of Lee-san. I shook my head and stood, joining him, "We should fight them together since we have to protect Naruto no baka and Sasuke-kun, ne?"

Oh, I could certainly see the 'flame of youth' ignite in Lee-san's eyes. We were off. We both took positions and I withdrew a kunai.

"Lee-san," I murmured, "Be careful of the one in the bandages; he fights with sound vibrations and it could seriously damage your hearing."

"How did you…?" Lee-san asked, perplexed that I was able to tell that much from the enemy. I grinned smugly, "They shouldn't have shown their abilities that one time in the testing room. That is what I was talking about."

"And what about him?" Lee-san continued, motioning toward Zaku. My eyes narrowed as Zaku smirked.

"He uses air slicing attacks; it's best for you to fight him since he doesn't seem to be a close combat type. Be careful though, projectiles don't work with him; he'll just blow them away. Remember, close combat works; render his arms useless."

He nodded and we were off.

"Oh?" Dosu said as I trotted in front of him. "Do you really want to fight me?"

"Not really. But we have no choice, since Orochimaru sent you to kill Sasuke-kun." I answered. The one visible eye Dosu had widened, "What? But how?"

"Nevermind that." I reply, "Get ready."

We flew at each other instantaneously. Dosu threw a punch to my right and I grabbed his arm, throwing him over my shoulder. He landed a couple feet away and I jumped out of the way before the worst of his vibrations got me.

My ears were ringing, but it wasn't too serious. He began to weave signs and when he finished, he held his palms out to me. It was some sort of sound attack, so I threw my fist down to the earth and allowed the giant pieces of rock to serve as a cushioning. I winced when my fist came in contact with the ground.

"Ack, _shannaro_!" I screamed, kicking one particular boulder at Dosu, who was shocked at my chakra-enhanced taijutsu. He was able to barely stop the projectile and I threw a set of shuriken at him.

The further we got into the fight, the more I came to realize: I couldn't utilize my normal attacks as I had before. The chakra usage was beginning to become strenuous on my body and I could feel myself growing weaker the moment I had begun to enhance my taijutsu with chakra and use medical ninjutsu.

I panted harder as I ran around the perimeter of the area, charging straight for Dosu.

He blocked the shuriken with his arm and I flew over the giant boulder before him, my fist glowing again with chakra, ignoring my body's screaming protests. Blood flowed out of my ears and I realized that he had released vibrations moments before I moved.

"Shit - !" I cursed and stopped, holding my ear.

When I looked over, I saw that Lee-san was also on the ground, his arm bandages undone. Clearly, Zaku had won their fight.

"Not so arrogant now, are you girl?" Zaku said, panting. Kin took this opportunity to seize my long hair. She gripped it tightly and I ground my teeth together.

"Your hair is so much nicer than mine," she commented; her grip tightened and I twitched, "Trying to be beautiful? A _sexy ninja_?" she scoffed, "If you have enough time to treat your hair, then train!"

"Zaku," Dosu said; he was obviously also worn out. The earth I had smashed up had taken a considerable amount of his chakra, "Kill Uchiha Sasuke!"

"I won't let you!" I gritted out between clenched teeth; I took out another kunai and looked at Kin.

"That won't work against me, so give up!" she said. I laughed and her team mates looked at me strangely. "It isn't for you, _bitch_."

With a flick of my wrist, my burden was released and I transformed into the Sakura I was, fully equipped with shining determination and short hair. Lee-san gasped before losing consciousness.

"Sa…kura…sa…"

The rage I had harbored within from the entire shinobi system took over my heart and I tied my forehead protector back into place. "This time, I'll send you _all _straight to Hell."

"Kin, get her!" Dosu snapped.

For the sake of old memories, I performed the substitution technique and I was certain that Zaku was following. I would trick him just like I had last time.

Kin tackled me and I disappeared. Reappearing to the right and sprinted at them and threw a few kunai at Zaku who blasted them away with his troublesome technique.

"Above." He said to himself.

He looked up and grinned arrogantly, "This little trick is getting old."

He threw a few kunai at me; I didn't flinch when they embedded into my skin. Instead, I drew my special, poison-dipped kunai that I had prepared the night before.

He didn't even see it coming.

I plunged my weapon into his arm when I landed on him; both Zaku and I landed on the ground, tangled within our limbs. He punched my head multiple times and I twisted the kunai into his forearm before leaping off of him, putting some good distance between us.

He stood, panting and ripped the kunai out of his arm, "This is it!" he said sharply, preparing to use his technique again, "Say goodbye, brat!"

I coughed and crouched, about to dodge his attack.

Naruto appeared between Zaku and I and threw a solid punch across his cheek. Kin and Dosu gasped sharply as their team mate crashed through the thickest parts of the forest, destroying several trees.

The Naruto from my time had finally arrived. I inwardly sighed with relief; I didn't have much more chakra left to use.

Naruto turned around at me and grinned, "Sorry I'm late Sakura-chan!"

I glared at him, "S'okay. It only took you _a few days_! I mean really, d'you know how hard it is to fight people without using any of your _good _attacks? I'm almost out of kunai and shuriken, damn it!"

Naruto laughed and created an army of kage bunshin. All of them surrounded the sound nin and took their offensive stances. I grinned sloppily as Naruto stood in front of me protectively.

"Cough up your scroll, and we won't hurt you." Naruto said dangerously. Of course, no one could take blond-haired idiot seriously, so they ended up paying severely.

Naruto was able to successfully secure an earth scroll, completing a part of the second exam.

忍道

"So Gaara's here too?" Naruto asked. I nodded and tightened the sling round my neck. Naruto laid Sasuke-kun down on a lump of clothes that we had. Sasuke-kun stirred but didn't wake up.

"Yeah, he helped me avoid Orochimaru. As of right now, he thinks that Sasuke-kun has the curse mark, but he actually bit a sand clone of Gaara's…"

"How are we gonna make it look like Sasuke has the mark then? When Orochimaru sees him, he'll know that we tricked him and he'll go after Sasuke again."

I rubbed my temples, allowing the day's hard work starting to finally affect me. I shrugged and looked at his unmarked neck.

"Maybe we can place a temporary mark there," I suggested. Naruto's eyes reduced into slits and he nodded his head; I sighed because I knew he wasn't quite following what I was going at.

"Naruto, we can seal some of our chakra on Sasuke-kun, so that it will look like the curse mark. Kind of like the mark on Tsunade-shishou's forehead; you know, her Ying Release?"

Naruto thought about it briefly and then nodded his head, "Let's do it then!"

Naruto sat Sasuke-kun up and placed him against my shoulder; my heart fluttered at our closeness, but I kept my eyes focused on his neck. I placed my hand there and instructed Naruto to do the same.

Together, we withdrew chakra and molded it to shape Orochimaru's curse mark. This technique drew a lot of chakra and put strain on me since my chakra reserves were _nothing _compared to Naruto's. The deed was done within 20 minutes and Sasuke-kun woke up soon after. He groaned lowly and rubbed his neck.

"Sakura…what happened?" he asked me, "Where's the enemy? And what happened to your arm?"

Naruto grinned at his best friend and answered for me, "We lost 'em in the forest, but we managed to get a hold of their earth scroll. Clumsy idiots dropped it!" he answered. "But they got to Sakura before I could stop them." Naruto added, making sure to sound peeved.

Sasuke stared at my arm for a while, silent. We both didn't comment on his silence. Then suddenly, Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he looked at the two of us, worried. "What day is it?"

"The exam started two days ago, we're alright." I say gently, "Are you okay, Sasuke-kun?"

His eyes were unfocused, like he was still tired.

"Hn."

When we got back to the tower, I would tell Sandaime everything that is happening. The Fourth Kazekage, as of right now, is dead and Suna and Konoha are at the mercy of Orochimaru.

Naruto well understood what was to be anticipated in the future, as he too shared to same expression as I did. We both stood and I offered a hand to Sasuke-kun, who hesitantly accepted.

"C'mon, we still have to get to the tower."

Together, we sprinted to our target: the tower located at the center of the forest. Along the way, we passed the remains of other battles and we purposely avoided spots where other teams were camping out.

We arrived at the checkpoint within an hour. Battered, exhausted, and beaten up, we entered the first door we came in contact with. Inside was just like I remembered: large and empty.

It looked similar to the main fighting arena, but it was smaller. We faced the same heaven and earth inscription; Sasuke-kun read the script silently and turned to both of us, motioning to open our scrolls.

Iruka-sensei appeared before us and, just like three years ago, gave us the same lecture on balancing ourselves as shinobi. I took off my gloves and elbow protectors and tucked them away in my pouch.

When we all met in the main dueling room, I saw all the jonin lined up, staring at us all intensely. Sandaime stood in front of all the jonin and he beamed at us.

"Congratulations on passing the second exam!" Sandaime said sincerely. We all glanced around each other and fought the urge to scoff.

'_Yeah, we barely passed. What kind of exam is this anyway_?'

Kakashi-sensei cast us all a knowing glance; I could tell that the jonin knew about Orochimaru's attack on Sasuke-kun, but what they didn't know was that Gaara, Naruto, and I had prevented him from branding Sasuke-kun.

My heart nearly stopped beating when I sensed Orochimaru up front, posing as a jonin from Sound. How could they not see it? The similarity in appearance was striking. Naruto seemed to notice Orochimaru as well and he frowned.

"That bastard needs to be taken down!" I heard him hiss to himself. With Sasuke-kun's false curse mark in place, there wasn't much we could do without exposing ourselves and the mission. Naruto knew the consequences, as I had warned him beforehand in the forest.

As Hokage-sama explained the third test again, I put my plan in action. The chakra sealed in the mark on Sasuke-kun's neck reacted to mine and Naruto's chakra. It would grow when we expanded it and it was shrink when we reduced the power, quite simple.

Unfortunately for Sasuke-kun, I was able to use the last of my chakra to place an irritant medical ninjutsu upon the mark so that it would seem like he was suffering when in reality, I was indirectly using medical ninjutsu.

Not even Kabuto would notice this because this technique was created by Tsunade-shishou one year after Naruto and Sasuke-kun left the village for Morino-san's torture-interrogation techniques.

To be brief, I could torture Sasuke-kun to make it look like he was being affected by the mark.

At my will, the mark grew and Sasuke-kun twitched and gripped his neck. I could see Orochimaru smile and lick his lips, very much angering me. At that very instant, I wanted nothing more than to take the building apart and punch this _creature_ who tore the man I love from me.

His own selfishness, arrogance, and irresponsibility had killed him and I had no remorse whatsoever.

Sasuke-kun's grip became tighter and he twitched painfully as I expanded the chakra. He broke into a sweat and my heart stopped beating at his pain. I stopped and he was able to relax.

Only the sound of Hayate-sensei's sickly coughing was able to bring me out of my thoughts.

"If any of you feel like you can't carry on, then you may drop out now," he said, looking at all of us.

Kabuto raised his hand, smiling, "Okay! I'll drop out!" he declared. Without another word, Kabuto exited the fighting arena, leaving behind his two team mates. Anko-san quickly dismissed him, while Hokage-sama eyed him suspiciously.

Everyone else kept their mouth shut and soon after, the preliminaries were started.

忍道

The first battle was Sasuke-kun against that Yoroi guy from Kabuto's team. If I can recall, his ability was that he could absorb chakra through mere physical contact.

He twitched and Naruto and I noticed the satisfaction that appeared in Yoroi's eyes. So long as this match kept on, I would have to constantly control the chakra irritating Sasuke-kun.

Not even Orochimaru himself would be able to detect anything.

"Will everyone go to the second level to watch?" Hayate-sensei asked and we all complied. As Kakashi-sensei passed Sasuke-kun, I heard him murmur a few words and then he followed Naruto and I.

"Sakura-chan, is Sasuke gonna be okay with it?" Naruto asked me lowly. I could see Sasuke painfully gripping his shoulder; I nodded in reply.

"Should it get out of control, which it shouldn't, I'll stop it." I answer back calmly. Kakashi-sensei stopped beside me and leaned over the railing.

"I hope you all are ready, Naruto, Sakura." He says dryly.

"Of course I am!" Naruto snapped, enthusiastically waving his arms around, "I'm gonna be Hokage!"

Kakashi-sensei's eye closed and he chuckled, ruffling Naruto's shocks of blond hair.

"Kakashi-sensei," I murmured. He looked over to me and I watched him carefully from the corner of my eye, "Sasuke-kun has been hurting."

He knows that I know about the mark and sighs, "Now isn't the time, Sakura…"

"It's serious," I continue, not heeding his warning, "He needs to get looked at; he almost died in the forest." I lied.

Kakashi-sensei cast me one more glance and then sighed, "He will be alright, Sakura. Don't worry so much. Sasuke is strong."

During our second test, I suspect that Anko-san and the other proctors discovered the real bodies of the three grass nin and contacted Sandaime and the other jonin about it. As far as they're concerned, Sasuke-kun has been branded and is fighting the pain that it is causing.

"Please begin." Hayate-sensei said at last. We all leaned over the railing and watched as Sasuke-kun struggled with the paralyzing pain _I_ was causing and Yoroi's attacks.

With every sudden movement, I would attack him with a slight jab; not enough for him to fall to the ground over, but enough to feel it and cringe. I knew that he would be able to push through this.

"Yes!" Naruto cheered, as Sasuke-kun and Yoroi fell to the ground in a heap of limbs, "Get 'em, Sasuke! Get him now!"

I could see Orochimaru smiling from the other end, staring hungrily at Sasuke-kun as he struggled under Yoroi's grip. He was finally able to claw his way out and Yoroi stood up from the ground.

I lessened the pain in his neck due to the repercussions of the opponent's techniques. I noticed his body frozen due to chakra depletion; Yoroi came closer to Sasuke-kun, his hand glowing with chakra.

"_Sasuke-kun_!" I screamed. He sat up, only to be knocked back down as Yoroi took a hold of his hair, yanking at it and draining the chakra from Sasuke-kun's body. His yelps and screams fell on my ears and I wanted nothing more than to go and help him, but I stayed rooted in my spot.

"My chakra…!" Sasuke-kun gasped, panting as he grabbed Yoroi's forearm. The sound nin laughed sinisterly and tightened his grip, "So you finally noticed?" he asked. The chakra in Yoroi's hand glowed brighter and when just when he was about to drain everything –

"You…!" Sasuke-kun planted his foot in Yoroi's face, separating the two some good distance. He sat up and gasped for air and Yoroi stood up in his place. I could hear Naruto growling; was he really getting worked up from seeing this all again?

"Oi, Sasuke!" Naruto screeched, attracting everyone's attention. "Are you really Uchiha Sasuke? Is that all you can do!"

I smiled at Naruto's encouragement and nodded reassuringly at Sasuke-kun, "You can do it, Sasuke-kun!" I confirmed. Sasuke-kun gaped at us, but I could see his Will of Fire coming back to his dark eyes.

I grinned and Naruto did the same.

"You don't have time for sightseeing!" Yoroi snapped, charging at Sasuke-kun with the same technique as before. With each step closing in, I could see everyone peering in closer and closer – someone was bound to fall over.

Sasuke-kun disappeared and appeared again, kicking Yoroi in the jaw and also launching him upward, somewhat similar to Lee-san's Primary Lotus technique.

"It's over." I heard Sasuke-kun say. Naruto gripped my wrist and nodded; I clenched my fist and activated the mark, only a little, so we wouldn't seriously injure Sasuke-kun. I made it grow and we both saw the expressions of shock and satisfaction on Hokage-sama, Anko-san, and Orochimaru's faces.

I commanded the 'curse' to recede just in time for Sasuke-kun to finish his Shishi Rendan. Yoroi coughed up blood and slumped into unconsciousness whilst Sasuke-kun stood up, a little wobbly.

"Yeah, Sasuke!" Naruto screamed, smiling brightly at his best friend.

"I'm stopping the fight here," Hayate-sensei declared, "Uchiha Sasuke is the winner of the first battle!"

Kakashi-sensei zoomed down to Sasuke-kun while Naruto kept hooting and hollering, "What a lame way to win!" Naruto continued, "You're all beat up, idiot!"

Sasuke-kun smirked at us, but said nothing else. Kakashi-sensei had taken Sasuke-kun away in the back, probably to seal up the curse, and we waited for the next matches to pass.

つづく

**Author's notes: **I'm trying my best to incorporate SasuSaku without messing up the plot of the story. Thanks for all of the reviews that I've gotten; even the ones with constructive criticism, I found most of them rather insightful.

I'm gonna go ahead and explain Sakura's physical change in the event that you didn't catch it and decide to comment upon it: Sakura _does_ have the ability to use chakra-enhanced taijutsu and medical ninjutsu, it's become apparent to her, however, that she can't be as reliant upon it as she used to be because her chakra reserves aren't what they used to be. You catch my drift? Because she was using it more and more in the second part of the exam, it was becoming more difficult because she was draining more chakra. In the Naruto world, you can expand your chakra reserves. In Naruto's case, however, he can still use Rasengan because he has large reserves to begin with...but he can't use it at this moment because Orochimaru disrupted his regular chakra flow. Mmkay? Mmkay :D

Reviews are always appreciated (:


	5. paralysis

**Counterclockwise  
>Summary:<strong>I'm almost certain that this was the Fourth Shinobi War moments ago, so why am I waiting for Kakashi-sensei with Naruto and Sasuke-kun? – SasuSaku

**Author's notes: **Symbolism up in hurr (: I'm happy with this. I live on the east coast of the US and we're expecting Hurricane Irene soon, so here's your update in the event that I can't update for a long time.

忍道

"Haruno Sakura versus Yamanaka Ino."

Ino gasped and I glanced over at my best friend. She looked into my eyes and I saw shining determination; we both made our way to the middle of the arena and waited for Hayate-sensei to give us the okay to start.

I noticed Kakashi-sensei had returned with Sasuke-kun; he looked tired, but his stare was still fixed on us. She blushed and giggled, waving at Sasuke-kun. He merely 'hmph'ed and turned away briefly.

I 'm guessing that Kakashi-sensei had sealed the mark on Sasuke-kun already. Since the curse itself is merely an imitation, it wouldn't drain dangerous amounts of Sasuke-kun's energy like the actual thing. However, creating and controlling it cost me a considerable amount of chakra and unfortunately, I was still feeling the effects of it.

"May the best girl win, Forehead-chan." Ino said maliciously, smiling. I beamed at her and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

"You betcha, Inobuta-chan," I responded.

"_Sakura-chan! You can do it!_" Naruto roared. I grinned lopsidedly and then averted my attention to Hayate-sensei.

"You may now begin."

Ino backed up, ready to charge at me, but I remembered the importance of this match. Not wanting to alter too much, I held my hand up. She stopped.

"What is it? Are you giving up already?"

My response was the untying of my forehead protector and the refastening of it on my forehead. Ino understood immediately and secured hers in the same manner. With nothing else to say, we ran at each other.

Ino threw her left leg out and I caught it with both of my arms; I turned the other direction sharply, twisting her leg violently and threw her over. She gritted her teeth and threw kunai and shuriken, to which I counteracted with my own arsenal of tools.

To be honest, I wasn't fighting Ino with all of my effort, with most of my concentration on Sasuke-kun's imitation curse mark, so, in my own distraction, I actually allowed her some hits.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled as I fell flat on my back. I grunted and stood, panting. Controlling Sasuke-kun's curse mark was really a strain on my chakra reserves; since Naruto's chakra control isn't as consistent as mine, it was ideal for me to grow and shrink the false mark.

I wasn't sure how long I would last in this battle since most of my chakra had been used up just by creating and controlling the seal; not to mention fighting with Orochimaru and the three sound nin. And the fact that my right hand was fractured; I was able to switch out of a sling in favor of more appropriate support until I could have it checked out.

Ino flew at me with a barrage of punches and kickes and as I struggled to find a major focus, I could see Naruto watching us intensely. He could see that I was tiring fast he couldn't stop anything.

"Hey, getting tired already, Forehead-chan?" Ino asked me. I coughed and stood up straight. "Nope. How about you?"

"No way."

We continued like that for a while; I was certain that the speculators were growing bored of our fight, mainly because we didn't have any out-of-the-ordinary techniques to display.

The last thing I remembered was slipping up on one particular attack and actually hitting Ino with a semi-chakra-enhanced punch. I hissed when a surge of pain flowed through my bones and I fell to the ground, exhausted and chakra-depleted. My eyes began to lose focus and I noticed the floor coming closer and closer to my face.

"_Sakura-chan_!" I heard Naruto call, but I was already too tired to respond. Hayate-sensei declared our fight as a double knockout and Kakashi-sensei was there instantly, lifting me off the ground.

I didn't want to do anything other than sleep. The last thing I saw was Naruto and Sasuke-kun, both staring at me closely. I began to blink slower and slower…and then I was gone.

忍道

A single droplet of water caught my attention. I was in the dark, still and unmoving. I feel no warmth, I hear no sounds; just the steady beating of my heart. There are no companions with me in my darkened solitude. I looked around me, taking in my surroundings to see that I have no surroundings.

Black.

Pitch black.

Obsidian.

'_Come closer_' A cold voice somewhat fills the void that I was experiencing and, not knowing where the caller was, I walked forward. A single twinkling star flashes in the distance and I follow it. As I approach the shining, everything zooms past me at a blinding speed; however, my eyes remain trained on that star.

I am outside again. And I am standing on a painfully familiar road. I knew this scene all too well. Despite the fact that it had occurred only once, it replayed many times in my dreams. The trees swaying in the night breeze and the leaves drifting across the empty cobblestone road Sasuke-kun and I now stood on.

I can feel the hot tears surging down my face and my body suddenly erupts into violent hiccups and sobs. My mind is perfectly aware of what is going on, but my body moves without my consent.

I ran forward a few steps and stopped abruptly, the sobs now racking my body.

"Please!" I cry out loudly, holding my hands tightly to my chest. "I…I love you with all my heart! If you were…" I stopped and then started back up again, "If you were to stay here with me, there wouldn't be any regrets; I swear it! Because…because everyday we'd do something fun; we'd be happy…I would do anything for you, so please…please stay with me."

Sasuke-kun turned halfway to face me. He looked the same, with a smug expression present on his face. My heart throbbed painfully as he repeated the same thing he had before. I felt my body freeze when his accusation reached my ears.

"You're…still annoying." Sasuke-kun turned away from me and proceeded down the path to the entrance gate of the village. I felt sick to my stomach; lightheaded and helpless. I could only run after him like the annoying, smitten little girl I once was. I could hear my heart shattering into millions of little facets and the feeling was just as real as it had been the first time. I bit back another sob as I called his name again and again…and again.

"Stop! If you leave…if you leave, I'll scream!" I warned. I remember meaning every single word; he stopped in his tracks and I knew our end was coming near. The next time I would see Sasuke-kun would be almost three years later and he wouldn't be at all the same.

He disappeared and reappeared behind me, a result of his blinding speed. At that very moment, every other sound fell soundless on my ears. I could not feel anything other than Sasuke-kun's inviting warmth and I dared not say anything. My heart stopped beating for that very moment as I listened to him for the last time.

"Sakura…" he said, genuinely touched by my concern, "…thank you."

The tears continued to stream down my cheeks and onto the road beneath my feet as I realized that this would be the last time we would be found on the same path ever again. I waited for the jab Sasuke-kun would deliver that would ultimately sever our tie until we met again. Though my body was shutting down, my mind was wildly awake.

I slumped lifelessly into Sasuke-kun's arms and he carried me gently to that wretched bench. I could not see his face as he lifted me off the ground and when he set me back down on the cold, hard surface, but the moment I heard the quiet clicking of his zori on the ground, my eyes snapped open instantly.

My mouth remained shut and my body refused to move, rendering me under the control of this torturous paralysis my body was placed under. With every furthering step Sasuke-kun took, I would shed a tear.

Tear after tear after tear…I felt like I was drowning in my own misery. I squeezed my eyes shut as Sasuke-kun disappeared from the village and once more, I felt myself falling…falling…falling. The descending feeling stopped and I opened my eyes slowly. Black again.

Before me stands a black stallion.

Its eyes are that unmistaken shade of gray and its hair is that mystifying black. It snorts at me and trots forward; my hand is outstretched and the stallion leans forward, allowing me to stroke its long face. Its beauty and grace were painfully familiar to me and I couldn't help but to come closer to it.

Very cautiously, I approached the beast until I stood directly next to it. Its curious dark eyes stared back into my own and I continued to pet it gently. The black stallion leaned lower until its face was directly at my level. The shining obsidian I once found gazing into my own emerald transformed into a gorgeous ruby-red. The stallion recoiled from my touched, bucking and whinnying in a rage.

"W-What's wrong?" I asked, but it didn't calm down. The angry creature trotted in the darkness and I could only stand in my spot, frozen with my terrified gaze trained on the pained creature. A white snake appeared round the stallion's strong neck; its fangs impaling the beautiful beast's neck.

Anger came down upon me and my face contorted into an expression of pure rage; I clenched both of my fists and ran to the victimized stallion. Enraged, I screamed at the snake, who paid no attention to my approach.

"You!" I roared, the snake slithered eerily round the horse's neck and challenged me smugly with its disgustingly yellowed eyes. The snake hissed, summoning hundreds of black crows with the same ruby-red eyes; some landed on the horse and more perched on my shoulders, head…

"You will never save him." The snake said maliciously.

This _reptile_…the anger that swelled within me was overwhelming and all sad thoughts were replaced immediately with murderous images of _everyone_ who had hurt us in the past few years.

Orochimaru…Akatsuki…Danzou…Uchiha Madara…

The paralysis placed over me dissipated and I withdrew a kunai, glaring sharply at the reptile on the horse's back. It looked at me again and then bit into the stallion's flesh, causing another shriek of pain.

I growled and shook the birds off of me, charging at the snake, kunai in hand. Letting out an angry yelp, I jumped on the back of the black stallion and seized the white snake; I squeezed its body dangerously and watched as the pupils in its widened eyes rolled to the back of its head. The snake laughed loudly and I tightened its hold.

"He already belongs to me." It said; I saw red and swung my kunai at it. The black birds flew around what was left of the snake, its blood pooling out from underneath its corpse. I sat on top of the horse, now gently looking over its back to look at me. I leaned forward and wrapped both arms round its neck, burying my face in its dark hair.

"You'll be safe, Sasuke-kun." I murmured to the stallion. "You'll be safe."

I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift…to where I was going, I did not know. I kept flowing through this now comfortable silence…

忍道

My eyes fluttered open and the first thing I saw was Naruto's face. He smiled worriedly at me and he helped me sit up. Naruto kept his hand on my back to support my weight and I beamed appreciatively at him.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto said. When my head cleared, I took the opportunity to look at my blond-haired team mate. He looked healthy, as usual. However, I could still see fresh scratch marks and wounds on his body; his match with Kiba had probably already passed. I moved to stretched, but winced when my muscles protested sharply.

My right arm had a cast over it and I clutched the sheets of my bed with my left. I lifted my head and asked Naruto, "What happened?"

He shrugged, "Nothing much. The matches passed and we've been in the hospital for about a day. Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke will be coming to visit soon; how are you feeling?"

He finished the last question with a rather worried expression. I grinned at Naruto and chuckled. "I'm fine, I'm fine!" I reached over and ruffled Naruto's hair and then lay back down on my bed. We both sat in the Konoha hospital and from what I gather, the second phase of the exam had been over for a little while.

"Where's Gaara?" I asked Naruto quietly. He nodded his head toward the door and Gaara slid it open and stepped inside. Naruto waved happily to his friend and Gaara's mouth twitched; I could tell that he was amused by Naruto's childish antics. I suppose Naruto has always had that ability to make the coldest people smile.

"Hey Gaara," I greeted from my bed. "You okay? You look a little tired…"

Gaara nodded and then stepped closer to us. "I can't sleep well, but it's nothing I can't handle."

Naruto raised a brow and stood up. "Is it the Shukaku? Sakura-chan told me you did have it anymore."

Gaara sighed and rubbed his temples. "I thought so too, but I guess I was mistaken. That monster had woken up during the second stage, but I've managed to suppress it somewhat. It's alright, I can control it, it isn't anything new after all."

We both looked at Gaara, concerned, but nodded nonetheless. Naruto laughed and swung his arm over Gaara's neck.

"C'mere, take a seat!"

Gaara nodded and accepted Naruto invitation, sitting down next to him. We all sat in a brief silence, allowing the days' past events to settle into our brains. It was morning; the sun was just peaking from the eastern wing of the building and I could already hear Gai-sensei making his daily soliloquy about passionate youth.

I blinked, suddenly remembering something. "Hey Gaara, how's Lee?" I asked. Gaara shrugged and crossed his pale arms against his chest.

"We were both passed onto the next level since our match was taking too long." He responded. I smiled brightly and patted his shoulder lightly, "That's great! Good job!"

"Hn."

I frowned at Gaara's very Sasuke-kun-esque answer and chose to ignore it. "So what's next?" Naruto asked. I tapped my chin in thought, not really able to come up with a next step. Instead, Gaara spoke.

"We need to inform the Hokage of everything."

We both froze momentarily. Was he crazy? Tell Sandaime that we are the mental forms of ourselves from the future? Though we knew of everything occurring, I couldn't help but think that our claims weren't at all plausible.

"You have that scroll anyway, Sakura."

I looked down at the sheets with uncertainty. "Well, I know that…but –"

"But what?" he countered.

"I don't know if they'll believe us."

Naruto stood up from his seat and gripped my shoulder tightly, I looked up and saw Naruto staring back at me, his eyes blazing with unwavering determination.

"Sakura-chan, the old man will definitely believe us; I'll _make_ them acknowledge us." Naruto swore to me. There was something in both of their self-confidence that made me trust every single thing they said. I also thought of the promise I made myself back then; I wouldn't be on the sidelines and I would aid Naruto to the best of my ability.

I sighed deeply and smiled at both of them.

"Okay, let's go tell him."

That evening, after a brief visit from Kakashi-sensei, who had Sasuke-kun in tow, Naruto, Gaara, and I snuck out of the building and headed for Hokage tower. Through the night, we leapt over the rooftops stealthily. None of us spoke, we just continued to leap and run through the village, our cloaks swaying behind us. I clutched the scroll and held it tightly against my chest.

We appeared in front of Sandaime's office less than five minutes later. Naruto, Gaara, and I glanced at each other and nodded once. Naruto came closer to the door and knocked thrice. We waited to be admitted.

"Come in." Sandaime called from inside. We swiftly entered the room and found Hokage-sama sitting at his desk alone. He stared at the three of us suspiciously, possibly because I had not been discharged from the hospital and Gaara was with us. However, he saw the solemn expressions on each of our faces and shot us a quizzical look.

Wordlessly, we approached him and I handed him the scroll, breaking the seal with my chakra. We stood as Sandaime read the scroll in its entirety. Honestly, I was not sure if he would even believe us.

After all, we were still 12-year-old genin. Naruto swallowed audibly and Gaara remained in his spot, unblinking. I bit my lip and began to tap my fingers on the shell of my cast.

At last, Sandaime set the scroll down and looked up at the three of us; his eyes were wide and he held his shocked expression.

"So…" he began, his grand voice soft; so soft that we had to lean closer to comprehend what he was trying to say, "…you three were affected by _Han Tokei Mawari_?"

We nodded wordlessly and Sandaime cleared his throat. "Sakura, how do you know this is in fact that particular technique and not any kind of genjutsu?"

I pondered over that fact briefly; I hadn't considered the fact that I was in a genjutsu…but I suppose that was because once I had tried to utilize my chakra that would have immediately dispelled the technique in the first place.

"I am able to use genjutsu here, Sandaime. I can use medical ninjutsu and normal ninjutsu techniques, and I could sense the other genjutsu taking place; I am positive that this is the real thing." I answered positively.

"And," Gaara added, "the three of us are familiar with each other and the time we come from. We have the ability to use some of our attacks from our time as well."

"Old man." Naruto addressed; marching up to Sandaime's desk. He placed both of his hands down on the table and looked into Hokage-sama's eyes, "You have to believe us." Naruto said, "We can't do this on our own."

When Sandaime didn't respond, Naruto continued. "We're here for a mission and we can't go back until we've completed that mission. Please, help us carry out this mission. My father entrusted his Will of Fire to me and I want to protect this village and my friends to the best of my ability. They…" Naruto looked at Gaara and I and I immediately gave Naruto an encouraging smile before he continued, "…they all acknowledged me and they – Sakura-chan, Gaara, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei – _all of my friends_ – are so important to me. I want to protect them with my life."

Sandaime stared at us after Naruto had finished and then he lowered his head to the desk, observing the scroll carefully.

"I knew something was wrong when your injuries were examined, Sakura." He said and I gripped my cast. "You have burns from trying to stabilize chakra, signs that you've had some sort of training in advanced ninjutsu. And that last attack you gave Yamanaka Ino…you had concentrated chakra in that last hit, didn't you?" he was now fully staring at me; I looked to the side and grumbled my affirmative answer.

Sandaime was now smiling at the three of us, "I believe you."

The breath I had been holding in was released at last and Naruto broke out into a wide grin; he galloped through Sandaime's office and Gaara shifted his weight from one leg to the other. It was only when Hokage-sama lifted his hand was when we stopped what we were doing.

"If you all knew about the exams and Orochimaru –" he said Orochimaru's name with sorrow and distaste, "- then weren't you able to prevent him from attacking Uchiha Sasuke?"

"That curse mark was a medical jutsu of Tsunade-sama's invention," I said. Sandaime nodded his head in understanding; he looked rather impressed.

"I see…she must have taught you well." I blushed at the compliment and waved him off. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

"Old man, what are we gonna do about Orochimaru though?" Naruto asked. Hokage-sama rubbed his chin as he thought. We stood closer together in the event that unwanted ears would come to the door.

"I'm not too sure at the moment," he answered honestly, "but for now, we're gonna wing it, so he won't know anything. As for the war with Suna," Sandaime cast Gaara a trusting glance, "I expect that you will serve as a major part in this, right? Sabaku no Gaara…"

Gaara nodded affirmatively, but said nothing else.

"I hope you do know that you're betraying your country as of right now." Sandaime said gravely. Gaara's voice came out clearly.

"I do not believe so," he said diplomatically; for a moment, I admired his speaking skill, "I am merely protecting my…friends." He said. "It is a kage's job to protect those he cares about."

Sandaime nodded approvingly and stood up; he bowed low and we returned the gesture.

"It was very brave of you to come here without knowing how or why, but this time we'll do it right." He said. I felt comforted by his words.

"I believe that you three will contribute to the reformation of the shinobi world."

I felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders when we left the office early in the morning. I could tell Naruto and Gaara were also at ease because of the light expressions they had.

"That was a lot easier than I thought," Naruto said. I nodded in agreement and Gaara stopped abruptly, holding his arm out to stop Naruto and myself. We both looked at Gaara quizzically and his eyes narrowed.

He pointed down the hall and Naruto and I froze at what we saw.

"S-Sai?"

He was our age, obviously. However, he stared at us blankly and appeared to be carrying a scroll of some sort. I cursed when I realized what Sai was doing: he had been spying on us and was writing the information in a scroll.

"Oi, Sai!" Naruto hollered. Sai was shocked because Naruto had addressed him so familiarly, but he wasted no time in jumping out the window.

"You two need to get him, I'll go keep an eye on Baki and my sister and brother." Gaara commanded. We both waved to Gaara and then leapt out the window Sai had just exited through.

We saw Sai headed to the top of Hokage Mountain and without hesitation, we followed; right off the bat, our mission was already in danger.

It kind of reminded me of how much I really did hate Danzo. Citizens gaped overhead as Naruto and I chased down Sai.

We certainly weren't going to let him go.

つづく

**Notes:** I'm kind of starting to like the development; at last! I hope you all liked the dream sequence I placed in the chapter, as well as the symbolism. I had no idea when I would be publishing this chapter, but I was able to finish it because I read the latest Naruto chapter. Hurricane Irene's a'comin'. I'll see ya'll soon (:

As always, reviews are appreciated!


	6. speed

**Counterclockwise  
>Summary: <strong>I'm almost certain that this was the Fourth Shinobi War moments ago, so why am I waiting for Kakashi-sensei with Naruto and Sasuke-kun? – SasuSaku

**Author's notes:**I'm back! Thanks to all of you who reviewed and your wishes of safety during the hurricane (: Luckily, it hit Virginia as a Cat. 1, so there weren't any major damages. Anyway, back to the story!

There is a part spoken from a third person POV, so I'm warning you now in the event that you might be confused.

忍道

"Did that bastard Danzo have ROOT members spy on the old man?" Naruto seethed over the rushing of the wind. I shrugged and bounced off another rooftop. Running across the village in a cast felt strange to me. As my arm shook inside the sling, I tried my best to not dangerously shift my arm's current position.

"Danzo was always like that," I told Naruto; I remember how, while Naruto was gone, he would always have his ROOT members standing outside of Tsunade-shishou's office. They were always there and it irritated me because I couldn't ever say anything while believing my words were in the confidentiality of the office itself. I would make sure to tell Hokage-sama himself that they were going to have to leave because their presence was an intrusion and it gave outsiders the idea that we didn't trust our beloved leader.

I saw Naruto clench his fist tightly and we landed on top of the academy building.

"It was his fault…" Naruto said quietly, "…it was his fault and those other two elders - Utatane and Mitokado - that Itachi had to kill his clan. They insisted that the Uchiha had to be taken out and Danzo wanted Sasuke dead, but Itachi…"

I was listening to Naruto very closely; I knew that Itachi was innocent, however, I didn't know of the details. I did not know who was at blame and I had not the slightest clue that the elders of the village had turned their backs on the Uchiha.

"…Itachi wouldn't let them," Naruto whispered at last. I honestly didn't know how to respond to that; should we find Itachi and tell him? Should we confront Danzo and the elders? Maybe it was a good move to tell the Hokage.

No wonder Sasuke-kun wanted to destroy the village. Though many felt like there was no redemption for him, I believed that Sasuke-kun's psychological downfall was a result of the shinobi world's nature. Everyone had no one to blame but themselves. In this case, I fully believe that the Konogakure elders are at fault and that, as protectors of this village, they failed miserably. I secretly hoped for them to be put in their places once we had Orochimaru and Danzo sorted out.

My thoughts became jumbled once I realized just how hectic our schedule was going to be for the next few weeks; and this is if everything goes smoothly. On top of that, both Naruto and I couldn't utilize our techniques to the best of our ability, with my chakra not being developed enough and with Naruto's own chakra unstable. I rubbed the temple of my head as I could feel a splitting headache beginning to develop.

Despite my confusion, I gripped Naruto's shoulder with my left hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Naruto turned around to face me and smiled; I returned the gesture.

"We'll deal with him together and stop all of this from happening." I said. Naruto nodded with a loud '_yosh_' and we crouched, ready to spring into action again.

"_Ninpou: Chouju Giga._" Naruto and I looked up and saw Sai sitting, his brush in hand and this creations flying off the page. Naruto grinned and got ready to fight Sai.

"_Teme_, you don't know who you're messing with. _Kage bunshin no jutsu_!"

忍道

"_Chidori_ - !" the loud crackling of chakra slowly faded from Sasuke's hand. He panted, tired and worn out from the day's training. Kakashi casually observed his prodigy student and the giant hole bore into the giant boulder in front of the two shinobi.

"Very good, Sasuke. We now know that your limit, as of right now, is _two. _Your chakra can currently handle two chidori attacks; you don't want to do anymore than that. Got it?"

Sasuke coughed and wiped the sweat off his brow, "And what happens if I do use chidori more than twice?" he asked defiantly.

Kakashi didn't even turn to face his student; his single eye merely glanced over in his direction before averting it's gaze back to the rock. "There are shinobi who, in the quest for power, have constantly drained their energy. They go way beyond what their bodies can handle and those shinobi were dead men."

Sasuke, for once, had nothing to answer back. Kakashi nodded and dusted off his hands, "Well, I believe that is enough training for to – " Sasuke's silver-haired teacher stopped suddenly and Sasuke did the same. If he could guess right, Sasuke knew that Kakashi was tracking those sudden bursts of chakra rushing in their direction; it looked like three people were in the midst of a pursuit.

He could sense familiarity in two of the chakra signals but paid more attention to the amount being used. '_I know that chakra_…' Kakashi thought to himself; it just didn't make sense.

'_I can understand why Naruto is here; to challenge me as usual, but why is Sakura here? Surely it couldn't be because of Sasuke. Then again, she doesn't seem to be interested in him anymore_.'

"_Shannaro_!" Kakashi and Sasuke leapt out of the way and hid along the cliff side as Sai jumped on top of the rock Sasuke had just punctured. To their great surprise, this shinobi, who looked of a higher rank, possibly ANBU, was worn out. He looked worn out by Naruto and _Sakura_, two clumsy, noisy _genin_.

"Sai!" Naruto's voice echoed, "You had better get over here or I will _kill _you right now."

Kakashi took this moment to pull his headband up and analyze the situation through the Sharingan; Sasuke saw and did the same.

"For a genin, you sure do put up a good fight," Sai commented, rather arrogantly. "I'm sure you won't be able to keep up for long."

Sakura suddenly appeared above Sai, Kakashi's Sharingan spun round and round; '_Since when has she become this fast?'._

"_Eat this_!" Sakura exclaimed, bringing her leg down on his face. She met her mark and Sai instantaneously flew off the rock, crashing into the ground. Sai groaned and stood up from his rock bed and Sakura leapt off the boulder. She glared at her future team mate.

"Sakura-chan, you need to take it easy!" Naruto called from behind her. The kunoichi merely waved her hand to disregard what Naruto had said and she averted her attention back to Sai, who looked rather stunned at Sakura's strength despite her young age and being confined in a cast.

"We don't want to hurt you, but if you keep on running, we will have no choice," she said. Kakashi could sense the seriousness and maturity in her voice; surely this wasn't the same Sakura from before! The same thing with Naruto was well; he had somewhat of a somber aura to him, it actually reminded Kakashi of Yondaime Hokage…

Something was wrong with these two and Kakashi couldn't exactly put a finger on it. Why were they chasing this boy? Why was Sakura fighting in a cast? How did she learn to fight so well? Since when did Naruto and Sakura work well together? Why wasn't Naruto making foolish mistakes in front of this Sai's face? Thought after thought crammed into Kakashi and Sasuke's heads and they nearly gaped as their team mates began to execute very effective and impressive team work skills.

Sai formed a seal to help him escape, but Naruto tossed an explosive tag at him.

"SAI! _Shannaro_! Stop it, you don't know what you are doing!"

Sai dodged the kunai and drew his katana; Naruto growled and pulled out a kunai. The two flew at each other; the faint _whoosh _of the wind and metal clanking was audible from Sasuke and Kakashi's position.

The male ninja then threw multiple shuriken in Sakura's direction; some of which cut keep into her pale skin. Sakura cursed and gripped her newer injuries, giving Sai an opening.

Sai drew twine from his pouch and swung it around the pink-haired kunoichi; he bound her tightly with a sharp tug and flew forward to pierce Sakura with the katana.

On impulse, Sasuke moved to help, not knowing at all why this shinobi was attacking fellow Konohagakure ninja. Kakashi placed a hand on his wrist, "Not yet. I want to see where this is going."

"_Kage bunshin no jutsu!_" Naruto and his two clones appeared in front of Sakura; they grabbed the twine and yanked it. With a yelp, Sai flew in their direction. Naruto took this opportunity to hit the ANBU specialist. Kakashi and Sasuke watched as Sai flew up, up, up –

His clones moved, kicking Sai higher into the air until the real Naruto (or so they guessed), brought him back down to the earth with a jaw breaking kick to the face.

"_Naruto Rendan!_"

The Sai face planted into the ground melted into ink. Naruto cursed as the real Sai ran at Sakura, still bound, with his katana.

Sakura grunted and caught the katana between her zori. She pressed the soles of her feet together and swung the pressure off of her; Sai flew to Sakura's side and she cut through the twine. Dumbfounded, Sai looked up and saw Sakura _inches _from his face, her left hand glowing green. He threw a punch at her and she ducked. Sakura grunted and twitched, but was able to grab his ankles, quickly snapping the tendons.

Sakura collapsed to the ground, panting because she knew better than to try and utilize medical ninjutsu. Naruto displayed an expression of disapproval and nodded to his team mate acknowledging her and reassuring her that he would finish this match.

Sai fell to the ground and opened a scroll. Naruto and Sakura knew what he was planning to do. Sakura gave her team mate a knowing look and nodded.

"We didn't want to do this, Sai."

Kakashi peered in further and watched as Naruto and his newly-created shadow clone formed a ball of spinning chakra in Naruto's palm. This spherical technique whirred wildly out of control and Naruto panted, trying to contain its monstrous energy. Naruto's Rasengan was clearly a failure; however, he kept charging at Sai.

Kakashi's eye widened at the sight of this own teacher's technique being used. '_Naruto – that's …_"

Both hidden shinobi, Sasuke and Kakashi, could tell that this was a rather powerful technique. Naruto ran at Sai, who had finished painting his newest monster.

"Ninpou: Choju Giga"

From Sai's page exploded seven fierce lions, roaring and sprinting at Naruto. The blonde shinobi stuck out his left hand, the one clenching the ball of whirling chakra, into the heart of the lion.

"_Rasengan_!" he tore through all seven lions like a stick of butter. However, the instability of the technique itself not only tore through Sai's technique, but it tore up Naruto's sleeve; his right arm twisted violently and a horrible 'crack' was emitted into the air. He cursed loudly and gripped his arm in pain, as it was now not only burnt, but possibly broken.

'_Crap. I forgot about Orochimaru's seal._' Naruto thought to himself, cursing. '_I need someone to release it_'.

He stood before his future team mate, panting, and Sakura joined, just as worn out.

Sasuke watched as his pink-haired crybaby team mate landed over her opponent and struck his neck. Through his Sharingan, Sasuke saw that this ninja was now rendered immobilized by Sakura's.

"I told you we weren't kidding, Sai." Sakura said impatiently.

"How do you know my name?" the shinobi named Sai asked. Naruto scratched his head and shouted, "_I told you I can't say, you idiot! _How many times do I have to tell you that! You're the same as ever; always being stupid, always acting stupid questions, always _getting on my nerves_!"

"You're still as stupid as ever," Sakura commented hotly, hitting Sai upside the head. "Listening to other people's conversations, that's so _rude_!"

'_That temper…it's worse. I thought nothing could surpass her impatience with Naruto._' Kakashi thought dryly. Sasuke remained silent and watched intensely as Naruto and Sakura yelled at the boy called "Sai". Though he couldn't exactly bring himself to admit it, this boy did have a striking resemblance to the remaining Uchiha. There wasn't much that they could do or say; they could not save this _Sai _because they didn't know why his team mates had attacked him.

In addition to that, they didn't know where Sakura and Naruto had acquired the skills to go and attack someone of ANBU ranks like that. In fact, Sakura's behavior had in fact been very strange, but since Team Kakashi had just recently formed, Sasuke didn't know each other well enough to know what else to expect from her, other than the usual raving about how cool he was.

'_Come to think of it, she hasn't bothered me in that sense since we got Kakashi as a teacher…could something have happened? And what's Naruto doing with a jutsu like that?_'

Kakashi recalled that Naruto had also been acting strange since the second phase of the chuunin exams, and where had he learned such a powerful jutsu? Why, it was none other than the Yondaime Hokage's technique! Surely someone had had to teach him it…not even Kakashi knew Rasengan!

"And why shouldn't I go and report this to Danzo?" Sai asked innocently. Naruto twitched and squatted to the ANBU member's eye level; he quickly drew out another kunai. "Ano sa, Sai. Do you want me to cut your tongue off? That's enough of your mouth!"

"Who are you two?" he asked, truly curious.

Sakura scoffed and sat down next to Naruto, "That would require us telling you and we _just don't trust you_."

"You aren't being very persuasive right now," Sai commented. From the bushes, Sasuke and Kakashi listened closely to the conversation taking place.

"He has the upper hand right now," Sasuke said suddenly, Kakashi nodded in agreement with his pupil. "Sasuke, was that guy in the first and second phase of the exam with you, Naruto, and Sakura?"

Sasuke shook his head, "No. I didn't see him; I've never seen him. Kakashi, don't you think they've been _off _lately? I mean, ever since we came out of the forest, I always feel like they're on edge all the time. Surely that isn't normal for those two, especially Naruto."

"So you noticed too. And here, I thought you were always focused elsewhere," Kakashi responded. The two turned back to watch the scene unfolding before them. Sakura held up a small, beaten book; almost immediately, they could see the panic twisted in Sai's normally unfathomable expression.

"Give that back! Give it back!" Sai said sharply, almost pleading. Sakura raised a brow at him and scooted over, closer to her team mate, tossing the book onto his lap.

"I know how important that is to you; how important your brother is you to," Naruto started, much more kindly than he initially was. Sai stopped his hissing and began to listen, "I know how you have to report everything you hear, Sai, but no one understands how important this information is. At this point, no one knows more than we do and we can't allow anyone to lie about things when we know the truth."

"But what is the exact truth?" Sai asked. Sakura smiled sadly at him and shook her head, "Can't tell you, sorry."

"If I don't know the reasons, then how can you tell me that I can't report this at all?" he asked, childishly. Kakashi and Sasuke were close to pumping chakra to their ears to get a better listen. Sakura smirked and moved to his feet; her good hand glowed green.

Her breathing grew heavier and beads of sweat appeared at her forehead. "Kakashi, what is that green chakra?" Sasuke asked.

"Typically green chakra signals the usage of medical ninjutsu. I'm assuming to Sakura is currently using that medical ninjutsu to heal his legs."

'_But where did she learn those techniques?_'

"Mou Sakura-chan, you can't keep using that." Naruto said, worried. "You know it drains your chakra."

"I'll be fine." Sakura reassured, "This will be the last time I'll use it until I can get sufficient training, I promise." She turned back to Sai with a friendly smile.

"Sai," Sakura said clearly; she could feel her older self showing through her young kunoichi form, "I have a feeling we're going to be friends in the future."

"…friends?"

"Yes, Sai." Naruto added, "We will build a bond strong enough to overcome any kind of obstacle the future will bring; I mean that. Your future bonds might not be like the bond you had with your brother, but I do know that they will be strong enough for you to have the confidence to do _anything _you want to."

Sai was speechless. These people, this _strange_ _boy and _girl, who had the best kage bunshin and meanest left hook he had ever seen, told him that they are going to be friends. That he was going to have bonds with others. Though he knew not if they were speaking the truth, Sai could tell that they were to be trusted. Sakura placed her hand on his neck and healed that spot as well. She stood and helped him stand as well.

Sai felt discombobulated, but he shook the feeling off.

Naruto continued, "Friends don't betray friends, Sai. You may not understand how I know you or why I am doing this, but understand this: I will _not _stand by this time and let things happen the way they did. I will not let you or Orochimaru or Danzo or anyone else wreck this mission. We were given this objective for a reason and we are not going to stop until we have succeeded. All of our friends are fighting and we're not going to fail them."

"What…is there to fight for?"

Sakura grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye, "Important things; _precious _things. Sai, I need you to promise us you aren't going to say anything about today."

Mechanically, he nodded his head slowly. Naruto grinned and slapped his back, "Thanks! You're a pal!"

Sakura bent down and picked up Sai's old book and placed it in his hand, "We'll see you again, okay? We gotta go now."

Still confused, Sai stood from his spot and nodded to the two. He then disappeared in a wave of leaves, leaving Sakura and Naruto on the cliff. The scroll he had written on lay on the ground in front of them and Naruto snatched it up and tucked it away in his pouch. The two sighed in relief and simultaneously winced from their newly-developed injuries.

"Are you sure you can trust him?" Gaara appeared behind the two in a flash of sand. Naruto grinned and waved his hand, "Of course we can!"

Gaara looked at Sakura for reassurance. "Yes, Sai may be loyal to _Danzo_," she said the name with much distaste, "and ANBU, but I could tell that he really did believe us. I wouldn't worry about it too much anymore. Well, for now at least."

Gaara nodded, satisfied, "This mission is more challenging than I thought it would be. I'm more focused on how we're going to get back."

Kakashi and Sasuke could barely believe their eyes and ears. Here their team mates were _talking _to that murderous Sand shinobi from before. Did they not see how bloodthirsty he was? Did they not see what he had done to Rock Lee?

"Gaara, when did you wake up anyway?" Naruto asked. The Kazekage looked at this loudmouthed friend and looked away, "When Sakura did. I woke up on the battlefield, where my platoon was stationed. Anyway, it's been difficult getting around since Temari and Kankurou have to look for me each time I leave."

"Aren't you gonna go back?"

Gaara sighed and kept his eye on the view at the cliff side, "Not just yet. We need to try and decide what we're going to do next."

The pink-haired kunoichi folded her arms behind her head and looked at the sky, "How troublesome…" she murmured, "…they unintentionally put us on a mission and we don't even know how we can get back; I mean, we stopped Orochimaru already!"

"Well then, maybe we can be of assistance."

Sakura stopped frozen in her tracks; she turned and saw her sensei and team mate standing behind her, both shocked and interested in her. Sakura chuckled and walked up to them.

"We got found out, huh?" Naruto asked.

"Not quite, Naruto, but we need you to tell us: who was that you guys were just talking to? Naruto, where did you learn Rasengan? And how did _you_ learn medical ninjutsu, Sakura?" Kakashi asked. Sakura bit the inside of her cheek and straightened up her posture. Both Naruto and Gaara looked internally conflicted.

"Sakura-chan…"

"I can't say exactly, but what I can tell you, Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun, is that you _need _to watch out for Orochimaru. He is out to get him!" Sakura strode over to Sasuke's side and pulled down his collar.

"Oi! What are you doing?" Sasuke snapped; Sakura quickly cut him off.

"He tried to give him that, sensei!" Sakura fiercely said, pointing to the fabricated curse mark. Kakashi's eye widened, "Sakura, what are you saying? Anko herself said she sensed the curse mark in Sasuke's chakra system. Sasuke says he can feel when it hurts."

"It isn't real," Naruto interrupted, "In the forest, Sakura-chan knew that Orochimaru was coming, so she made a kage bunshin of herself and took Sasuke out of the area Orochimaru was in; she knocked him out when they were far enough. The Sasuke Orochimaru attacked was a sand clone of Gaara's; when Sasuke was sleeping, Sakura-chan and I placed a fake one there and shaped the chakra to look like the actual curse mark. He can feel the pain because Sakura-chan placed another medical jutsu on that 'curse mark', just so Orochimaru could see the effects of it."

With that said, Sakura took her hand and placed it on the curse mark.

"Naruto, Gaara, can you come help me?" both complied with her request and placed their hands on top of her own, their chakras all combining. Sakura furrowed her brows in concentration and began the technique.

She inhaled and exhaled; bright blue chakra appeared. "I am canceling the technique, so the pain will go away; however, since you have a seal on this curse mark, sensei, this replica _must _remain until Orochimaru has been disposed of."

"Kai!" Sakura cried and Sasuke could feel the muscles in his shoulder and necks relax greatly. "Sorry Sasuke-kun; it was necessary at the moment."

"Hn."

"How…do you…all?" Kakashi choked out. Surely this wasn't normal! The longer he found himself staring at his two students collaborating with that creepy sand-nin, the louder his head would thump. It thumped wildly and Kakashi expected a headache to occur sooner or later.

"We can't tell you, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto answered dismissively. Sakura and Gaara both nodded silently and the five shinobi fell silent. There really wasn't any way out of this, was there? The three who were caught found themselves drowning in the darkened stares of Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke. Being the first to break away from their strong gazes, Gaara nodded to the four of them, motioning that it was time for him to take his leave. In a whirl of sand, he was gone.

Team Kakashi was now left to continue their own staring contest. Sakura and Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi – the former pair had no idea what to say; they couldn't _lie_, seeing as they had just got caught exposing some of their techniques, even if it greatly weakened. Naruto registered his own guilty expression and the one of Sakura's; both were so identical that he couldn't help but to smile widely.

With a huff, Naruto chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of this head; Sakura followed soon after, leaving only Sasuke and Kakashi to gape.

"Oh man, where are we supposed to start?" Naruto asked. Sakura merely shrugged and then crossed her arms; the day's labor was beginning to fall upon her and the next thing she could see was herself plummeting towards the ground. A second thud told Sakura that Naruto too had collapsed in exhaustion before she slipped into unconsciousness.

Running a hand through his silver hair, Kakashi bent over and picked Naruto up with a sigh; the look he then gave Sasuke told him to follow his action. With a slow nod, the Uchiha swooped down and scooped Sakura up into his arms; she was much heavier than he had thought…not that it served as a major problem.

He briefly ran his eyes over the form of the pinkette and he immediately spotted the deep bags that had settled underneath her eye sockets. Sasuke frowned; had she not gotten any sleep? This girl had been knocked out since _yesterday_. He began to wonder if she had been investing more time, work, and training because the girl was so tired. There was no other option; her hands bore chakra-caused burns, her right arm was confined in a cast, not to mention she was able to fend off a rather seemingly formidable opponent moments before. Deeper frown lines appeared in Sasuke's forehead as he had pieced together the subtle differences he had witnessed.

The Uchiha dug into his memory for any signs of change coming from the girl resting in his arms. As Sasuke recalled the various events that occurred, he realized something about his kunoichi team mate. The girl, though she spoke to him as she usually had, was not at _all_ as persistent as she had been before. She would ask him to accompany her once and then, after he coldly declined, she wouldn't ask again. And as he took more time to try and recall how she reacted, not once did he ever remember her _sulking_.

Haruno Sakura had to have been acting like that. Meaning, this change in her, whatever it was, must have occurred _days_ ago. Who knows? It could have been weeks ago. The girl was somewhat more collected during the exams (even if her impatience with Naruto was still present).

He had yet to examine Naruto, as his idiotic best friend was being whisked away by Kakashi as the two shinobi dashed down Hokage Mountain. At last, Sasuke spoke, addressing his teacher directly.

"Kakashi, what does this mean?"

The copy-nin did not turn. He simply leapt off another rooftop and stopped abruptly when the two shinobi arrived in front of the Konoha Hospital. The nurses outside, who had undoubtedly been searching for Sakura, scurried over to their side instantly. Both Naruto and Sakura were placed on stretchers and rolled into the building. The doors shut with a loud _snap_ and Kakashi turned to face Sasuke.

"We have to see Hokage-sama to find out. Sasuke, let's go."

With an agreeing 'hn', the Uchiha and his teacher spun around and bolted in the direction of Hokage Tower.

つづく

**Notes**: I'm so _tired_ man. I originally intended for Sasuke and Kakashi to find out about the jutsu, but I decided against it. I don't know if I like writing in first person or third person better. Uhm, yeah. As always, _thanks for reading_!

Reviews are always appreciated; really, it encourages the writer and feeds their inspiration.


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